


Reactions

by Fairylights4672



Category: The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Brenda and Teresa are twins???, But they have powers????, Chuck is Thomas' mentioned brother, First of all I have no idea what this is, Fluff and Angst, Highkey possessive Thomas, I dunno this might be your shit, I have no plan, It's explained I promise, It's not as shit as it sounds, Lets just go with it, M/M, Minho is a sassy bitch, Newt just let's him pretend he's in charge, Newt's new to the gang, SLOW BURN YALL, Sonya is Newt's mentioned sister, The gang are in collage, They're like superheroes, Thomas has a damn crush, Thomas' POV, We love dialogue, actually thats a lie, because why not, but not, welp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-04 09:15:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 40
Words: 48,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15838263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairylights4672/pseuds/Fairylights4672
Summary: Thomas had always known about his powers. His parents told him they'd first discovered them when he sneezed as a baby, and set fire to his cot.Over the years, he'd found people like him. His parents had explained to him what their job was in the world, and how he could use his powers for good.Now he goes to college with his best friends, brought together by their unusual abilities.This year he's got a new roommate.A really cute new roommate.And one that is definitely hiding something out of the ordinary.





	1. One

"Hey Tommy boy." Minho jumped him, the brunette almost dropping the box he was holding. The man turned to glare down his best friend, who only grinned cheekily back at him. "Hey now, not much of a welcome. Haven't seen you in ages."

"Mate, we went on a two week holiday," Thomas rolled his eyes, beginning to walk down the hallway again, Minho falling into step with him. "I've seen enough of you to last a bloody life time."

"Oh haha." The Korean deadpanned. "You got a new roommate this year? Anyone you know?" he asked inquisitively, nodding toward the paper Thomas had folded between two fingers.

"Nah. Some kid named Newton Samuels. You know him?" The brunette asked, his friend raising an eyebrow.

"Newton? Who in the hell names their kid Newton? Poor guy." he scoffed, Thomas nudging at his shoulder.

"Don't be rude Min'." The brunette stopped outside of a door, passing Minho the key to his dorm room. "Be a dear." The man huffed, plucked the key out of Thomas' hands and unlocked the door.

"The shit I do for you."

"You love me really." Thomas batted his eyelashes at his friend, pushing the door open with his foot and stepping inside.

The room was an average college dorm room, one side, presumably Thomas', empty, and the other, already almost full. The bed was made pristinely, next to it a bedside table. On top of it was a book, and a house plant. On the shelf below that, was a bottle of something that looked like ointment, although Thomas couldn't be one hundred percent sure it wasn't lube. On the shelves above the bed, books were rammed, held upright by more house plants in little blue pots. Atop of the windowsill, was a small watering can, also blue, sitting in the sun. The chest of drawers, opposite the bed, had a hairbrush and small mirror sat a top of it, with all drawers open. Clothes were being sorted and put into different drawers by the man, who Thomas could only assume was his new roommate.

"Hi." he tried to announce his presence, sitting his box of things on top of his bed and glancing at the man. He glanced up in surprise, apparently not having heard Thomas come in. The brunette glanced at the man, and then at Minho. Then he stopped and did a double take on his new roommate.

Good god.

He had longer, golden hair, strands falling floppily into his eyes, practically begging to be swept back. His eyes, were what Thomas could only describe to be the literal definition of doe eyes, big, and large and dark. He looked rather young for his age, Thomas could have easily passed him off as a high-schooler, but god did he want to squeeze the cheeks that made him look so young. Thomas forgot not to stare, eyes travelling downward. The man's jawline was sharp, neck lean. His adams apple bobbed as he swallowed, and Thomas bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from biting his lip.

The man wasn't exactly muscular, it was clear he didn't care for the gym like Thomas, Minho or Gally did, but the brunette certainly was not complaining. His arms were sculpted to say the least, and stood Thomas reckoned he'd be a bit taller than himself. The brunette wasn't religious, but if the man in front of him wasn't a human embodiment of an angel, he wasn't sure what was.

"Oh, sorry mate, didn't hear you come in." Oh god. Oh fuck. Thomas was in trouble. Deep deep trouble. He was British. Perfect, the angel was British, like his life couldn't get any harder. How was he supposed to live and be in contact with this man every day, without eating him alive. "'Name's Newt." The blond stood and held his hand out, Thomas taking it with a smile and shaking it firmly. Alright, it was confirmed. He'd touched an angel.

"Thomas."

"Aight Tommy boy," Minho nodded to him, smirking. Oh god. Had he been that obvious? "I'll catch you later, yeah? Have fun." The man winked and sauntered out, the brunette rolling his eyes.

"Sorry about him. He's an idiot."

"S'ok." Newt laughed. "Sorry, I hope you don't mind me taking this side of the room." he motioned towards the book crammed, house plant scattered half of his room with a wonky smile. Wonky smile, christ. Newt had to stop or Thomas might actually combust.

'No, no it's ok. I like what you've done with the place, it's cute."

"You think so?" Newt grinned, glancing back at it with pride.

"Yeah." The brunette nodded.

"Thank you." The blond smiled, sitting back on his bed. "So how are you?"

"I'm alright, how are you?" Thomas hummed, turning back to his own box and beginning to pull things out.

"Good. Excited to be here." he admitted, watching the brunette unpacked.

"You a freshman?" The brunette raised an eyebrow, the blond shaking his head.

"No, second year. I had a different roommate last year, but something happened and we stopped being friends, so I had to change rooms." he explained.

"Oh, right. What's your major?" Thomas asked, plugging his charger into the wall.

"Guess." The blond grinned, the brunette humming and looking his roommate up and down.

"Hmm," he asked, "literature studies?'

"That's a pretty good guess." Newt grinned at him, Thomas distracting himself to prevent actual drooling, "But no. Botany."

"Cool." Thomas smiled back at him, the blond humming.

"I think, you're doing, fermentation science." he smirked, the brunette laughing.

"Yeah not quite." Thomas scoffed, pulling out his drawers to sort out his clothes, "engineering."

"So you're a brain then. huh?" The blond eyed him curiously, "nice."

"Uh, excuse me Mr Samuels but my eyes are up here." the brunette teased, the blond scoffing.

"Sorry. Just can't help myself Tommy.”


	2. Two

"So tell me about yourself." Thomas hummed, Newt smiling at him over the campus coffee shop table.

"What do you want to know? There's nothing very interesting to know." he shrugged. Thomas huffed.

"Ok, tell me a bit about your family." 

"Well," Newt hummed. "My parents were alcoholics, and were real shitty. When I was twelve they ran me over with their car, and I broke my leg. It won't ever heal properly, but that's ok. Anyway, my sister Sonya and I were put into foster care. We got adopted by my dad, Vince. My parents got out of prison, there was a worry that they'd come after Sonya and I. So, when I was fifteen, we moved here to the US. Life moved on, my sister still lives with my dad, and now I'm studying botany." Thomas blinked rapidly, mind doing backflips. He was not expecting that. And he was not expecting Newt to be so casual about all of it.

"Jesus, I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. That sounds awful."

"Oh no no!" The blond reached out a warm, reassuring hand, "Don't worry about it. It's ok, just my past. Nothing to be ashamed of. Plus, I can't complain. My Dad's great." 

"Well, that's good. You deserve that." Thomas decided, Newt cocking his head and smiling fondly at him.

"How would you know? I could be a serial killer for all you know."

"Nah." 

"How can you be so sure?" The blond raised his eyebrows, Thomas shrugging.

"You're too much like an angel." Newt laughed, the brunette watching with warmth in his chest. He was so cute. 

"Right, right. Tell me a bit about you then." The blond hummed, sipping his tea. Thomas sighed in thought, chewing on his lip.

"Well, I've always lived here. I have a mom, and a brother. Mary and Chuck. Never known my dad, but that's alright. My mom's seeing a guy, and he's a good enough father figure for Chuck, and he makes my mom happy, so I don't mind him being around. That's all there really is to know, really."

"What's your favourite colour?" Newt asked, head resting on his palm.

"That's a hard one. Probably orange. Is your's blue?"

"How did you know?" The blond asked, seemingly taken aback.

"All your pots are blue mate."

"Oh. Heh- right."

-

"Look who it is." Minho grinned at him when Thomas jumped over the stile into Brenda's field. One of Thomas' best friends, Brenda, lived with her father on a farm, which came perfect for practice. "You get dick last night then?" He asked, the brunette punching him in the arm.

"I'm not fucking my new roommate."

"But you want too." The Korean challenged with a smirk. 

"He doesn't have to know that though." 

"Tom!" Teresa marched over to him, catching the attention of Brenda and Gally, who had been chatting away to themselves.

"Oh no. Teresa, you read me I will kill you." Thomas threatened, pointing an accusing finger to the woman, who was still squinting at him, trying to determine something. Then her face cleared in realisation, twisting into a smirk.

"To-"

"Do not."

"Tom want's to-"

"Teresa fucking Agnes." He warned.

"Tomwantstofuck!" She blurted, the brunette groaning. Brenda whistled, wiggling her eyebrows at him.

"Hot damn Thomas, who's the lucky one?"

"His roommate." Minho smacked him on the back, the brunette groaning at his whistling friends.

"He cute?" Teresa asked.

"Sure." Minho shrugged. "Wouldn't take him for Thomas' type but he's certainly attractive. Bit awkward though, to be fucking your roommate." he pocketed his hands, Gally cocking his head toward Thomas. 

"You think he'd wanna hang with us?" 

"Mate, as much as I'd like to see more of him, you and I both know that's a bad idea. He'd figure something out eventually. It's a bad enough idea that I'm his roommate. I might set fire to his poor plants."

"Is he a plant dork?" Brenda asked, Thomas nodding fondly, "Aww! I already wanna adopt him and get my two sons together!" Her friends stared at her incredulously.

"Bren', there were a million better ways you could have said that." Teresa shook her off, turning her attention back to Thomas, "What's his name?"

"Newt. And from what I can tell, he's normal. So whenever you meet him, no weirdness." he shot a warning glare to his friends. "Teresa, you read him I swear to god."

"I won't! I won't." she put her hands up in surrender, the brunette nodding.

"Good."

-

"Tom, just lemme meet him!" Teresa whined, as she trailed after her friend, walking the stairs back up to his dorm room.

"T, I love you and all, but I don't think that's a good idea just yet." he hummed, the woman groaning.

"Why not?!"

"Because, you can be a bit full on. I don't want to overwhelm him." he explained.

"I won't, honest. I'll be soon chill." she gesticulated her calmness, the brunette sighing in defeat and opening up the door.

"Newt?!" The blond poked his head around the corner as the two entered the room, smiling at the sight of his roommate. 

"Oh! Sorry, if I had known we'd had guests I would've got dressed in the bathroom." he laughed, Thomas keeping his jaw clenched so as not to let it drop. The blond just had a towel around his waist, hair wet and pushed back. Thomas glanced at Teresa, who shot him an impressive look before smiling back at the blond.

"Sorry." The brunette murmured, Teresa grinning at his new roommate.

"I'm Teresa. Sorry to catch you off guard, I was just coming to grab something of mine that Tom has." she explained. Hearing Teresa call him 'Tom' with Newt around him, made him think back to the day prior, when Newt had called him 'Tommy'. He hadn't said anything, and so, to his delight, Newt had kept calling him it. He wasn't sure why in particular it brought him so much joy, but he had to admit that it really did. "He's already talked a lot about you."

"Well I hope he's been nice about me." the blond smiled, Teresa laughing. 

"Oh, he has. He likes you." The woman turned her back to the blond, leaning over the brunettes bed and catching his eye. _'He's into you'_ she mouthed, the man shooting her a warning glare. She simply grabbed a random sheet of paper from his desk, grinning at him. "Well, here it is. It's been lovely to meet you Newt. I hope I'll see you around?" 

"Definitely! Nice meeting you." The blond smiled, the girl simply patting the brunette on the shoulder and leaving with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

"I'm so sorry. I hate my friends." Thomas apologised, the blond simply laughing.

"Don't be silly. They seem sweet."

"They are. Just, a little odd."

"Well, are any of us really normal?"


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aight ya bitch just bust her hand but I'm still pulling through y'all better send your prayers for me

Thomas sighed, bent over his work. He noticed the room getting a little dark, and so he absently motioned toward the candle on the window sill, chewing on his pencil. The wicks began to flicker, and Thomas hummed in approval at the slight change in lighting.

He'd been studying for a few hours, Newt napping on his bed. The blond had come in, from what had seemed like a rough day at work, and basically collapsed on his bed, spark out before he hit the pillow. he brunette would be lying if he'd said he hadn't gotten slightly distracted by Newt's little snuffles as he slept.

The brunette frowned down at his page, scratching at his chin. Newt confused him. Most of the time, Thomas had physical crushes. He wanted to have sex with someone, and that was it. It never went further than that. But the blond had been in his life for about three weeks now, and the brunette had started to notice that he was finding things about the blond attractive, that, weren't physical. Like, when he caught himself staring at the blond and thinking about how nice it would be to cuddle him, or marvelling at his intelligence. Thomas hummed. He wondered if this was a real crush. He hadn't had one of those in a long while, and he wasn't sure if he wanted another one.

Thomas had been in love with Rachel. He'd met her in high school, and they'd been together for almost three years. He'd been completely head over heels for her, and had tried his best to give her everything he could, anything she desired. Apparently, it hadn't been enough, as Thomas found out when he'd caught her making out with her best friend Aris, who Thomas had considered a friend, on her bed. 

Thomas had been utterly heartbroken, staying hauled up in his room for weeks, burning everything of hers he could find. After that, the brunette had made a silent promise to his broken heart that he wouldn't fall in love again. Not until he was sure the person wouldn't hurt him.

So no relationship with Newt. No love. Just physical. That's as far as it would go, Thomas would make sure of that.

Newt's small snuffle had Thomas turning around to glance at his bed, as the blond sat up. The brunette swallowed down a fond chuckle at his roommates wild hair, which the blond soon flattened with a shake of his head.

"And so he awakes from his coma." Thomas smirked at the blond, who rubbed at his eyes blearily.

"Was I out for long?"

"Four hours." Thomas hummed, glancing at his phone. The blond grumbled, curling back up on his bed.

"Have you eaten?"

"Not yet." The brunette shrugged.

"Can we get pizza?" The blond perked up hopefully, Thomas shrugging.

"Why not. What do you want?" He asked, moving to sit on his own bed and opening up the pizza delivery app.

"Well, I'm a regular type of guy. Margarita for me please." The blond smiled. "What about you?"

"I'll go Hawaiian I think." Thomas hummed, tapping in their order. Only to get hit in the face with a pillow. "Ow!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Newt glowered at him. "You like pineapple on pizza?!" 

"It's good!" Thomas defended with a laugh, Newt lying back with a groan.

"I knew you were too good to be true." Thomas scoffed, placing their order and throwing his phone down.

"Oh yeah? You interested blondie?"

"You wish." The blond scoffed.

-

Forty-five minutes later, the two of them were sat on the floor between their beds, eating pizza and slightly more than tipsy.

"I feel like I don't know anyhttting about you!" Newt exclaimed, swigging back a beer. "Yoougot a girlfriend? Or a boyfriend?" 

"Nah," Thomas sipped at his own drink, "The last girlfriend I hadws in high school, and the the _bitch_ cheated on me!" Newt gasped, glowering at the floorboards.

"Fuck her! You're too great for cows like that anyway Tommy." 

"I'm great." Thomas decided.

"Yeah you are!" 

"I don't date anymorre." Thomas clarified, more to remind himself that the adorably hiccuping blond in front of him was not an option, only another opportunity to get his heart broken, "The furthest Igo is fuckbuddies." he explained. Newt nodded.

"That's fair." the blond decided. Thomas passed off the flash of disappointment as the drink talking. 

"What about you? Boyfirne? Girlfriend?" Newt shrugged meekly, focusing on peeling off the sticker on his beer bottle.

"I like guyss, but I donreally have boyfriend. Peoplle tend to look over me. I hung ouut with the jocks in highschoool. No one wanted to go out with me, they alll liked my friend Alby." he explained. 

"Well I thinnk that's dumb." Thomas decided with an eyebrow furrow.

"Why?" Newt frowned.

"Cuz how can anyonne overloook you?! You're an angel!" Newt blinked at the sticker, now on his thumb, before leaning over and sticking it quietly on Thomas' forehead. Thomas just blinked at him, the blond's smile a faraway one.

"Thankkuo Tommy." He pressed a quick kiss to the brunette's cheek before sitting back and playing with his beer bottle some more.

Don't do it. Don't fall for him Thomas.

-

"So I think I know Newt." Gally told him, dropping some chips in his basket. The two often went shopping together, just because they seemed to work well in remembering what the other forgot. 

"Oh yeah?" The brunette raised an eyebrow vaguely, frowning in concentration.

"Yeah, he works at the coffee shop I go too. Met him in the summer." Gally grabbed some chips off the shelf and dropped them in Thomas' basket. The brunette smiled gratefully, despite the slight, ridiculous twinge of jealousy that Gally had known Newt first. "He's really sweet."

'You two friends?"

"Yeah, I guess." The man shrugged, scooping pots of instant ramen into his basket. "I was actually working the courage to ask him out, but if you have a thing for him, I think you should go for it." Thomas froze, blinking at him.

"Oh- damn- sorry man. I didn't realise." another twinge of jealously, but he pressed it down, content on being a good friend. Besides: bros before hoes.

"No, no it's alright. Honestly mate, I think you should go for it." Gally hummed, setting his basket on the counter and watching the cashier scan each item. Thomas frowned, doing the same with the chaser next to him.

"You saw him first."

"I did, but," The man sighed, crossing his arms for a moment, "you say you just wanna fuck?" Thomas hesitated, before nodding.

"Yeah." His friend glanced at him incredulously, paying for his food and smiling at the woman, taking his bags and waiting for Thomas. The brunette then did the same, and they left the shop together before Gally continued. 

"You hesitated." he stated, continuing before Thomas could protest, "I just think that you like him mate. Like properly. And I know I'm not Teresa, but I think I can spot a proper crush. And to be honest mate, I think that's great! You have been too scared to get into a new relationship, since high school, and I think it's about time you got over your fear and tried it with someone you actually like." he shrugged. "I get crushes easily. It'll pass. Newt is special to you, and I think you should go for it." he shrugged.

"You think that?" Thomas frowned.

"Yeah." Gally nodded.

"Hm. I'll think about it." he nodded gratefully to his friend. "Thanks mate. I don't deserve someone as selfless as you."

-

"See ya tomorrow mate." He called after Gally, before beginning the climb up the stairs to his dorm room. He was humming softly to himself, shopping bags in hand, about to open his door, when suddenly, everything began to shake. Thomas knew it was a small tremor from a  mile off; small earthquakes were common where they lived. From inside, he heard a string of curse words, and he could only imagine Newt's plants were about to fall to the ground.

He stopped until the hall stopped shuddering, and quickly opened the door to his room, slightly worried that Newt had injured himself. He blinked when he saw what was inside, mouth opening and closing.

Newt was in the middle of the room, a plant pot in either hand, clutched close to his chest. Around his head though, were his other plants, all held in the air in small, green bubbles. Also levitating was the ointment, which Thomas had discovered was for Newt's bad leg, and Thomas' candle, sat in a glass container. Newt glanced up and met Thomas' eye, going slightly pale.

"Oh- um. Tommy. Hi. I can explain."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also sidenote: there’s a oneshot up on DNA if you haven’t seen it yet. There’ll be daily ones, or like, frequent ones?? I don’t know, I’m starting school again soon, it’s gonna be hard to get through all of them. But I shall try my best, bear with <33


	4. Four

"Newt." Thomas put down his bag of shopping, the blond paling even more at Thomas' tone. The brunette couldn't say he was expecting Newt to have powers, the blond hadn't shown any signs of being out of the ordinary, but there were people with powers everywhere if you knew where you were looking.

"I can explain," the blond straightened, swallowing, "I know this looks so crazy, like- like I'm doing this." he laughed nervously, "But actually, the truth is that I- I'm just as confused as you! I have no idea how this is happening, at all-"

"Newt." Thomas tried again.

"So don't freak out- and- and leave me, cuz I promise this isn't me. I don't know how this is happening and-"

"Newt." The blond kept rambling nervously, clearly panicking about being found out. Thomas sighed, glancing over the blond's shoulder.

"I mean really this is so weird, and I don't understand it at all and this is super crazy and aAHH!" Newt bolted toward Thomas at a burst of heat on his back, running straight into the brunettes arms like a scared puppy. A pile of paper was on fire at Thomas' desk, the blond staring at it in disbelief. The brunette just wrapped an arm around the blond, waving the other in the general direction of the fire. The flames immediately died, smoke pluming out of the window as Newt watched on in disbelief, before looking up at the brunette. "Oh."

"I'm not leaving you." Thomas squeezed his arm tightly, before letting go. "I've never seen powers like that before." he hummed, crossing the room to the burnt papers and shoving them in the bin. 

"I didn't realise anyone was like me." The blond mumbled, seemingly in confusion, as he stared at Thomas' hands.

"You didn't?" Thomas frowned deeply when Newt shook his head. "What do you know about powers?" He asked, the blond glancing at his shoes. _"Nothing?_ "

"No." Newt mumbled. "I don't know why I have them, and I can't control some of them."

"Jesus Newt." The brunette frowned. "Your parents didn't explain it to you?"

"My parents ran me over." The blond deadpanned, Thomas shrugging.

"Ok. So you know nothing?"

"No." Newt sat on the floor, back to his bed, and Thomas sat opposite as usual. 

"Right, well." he cleared his throat. "Powers run in the family. If someone has a power, they give, not the same power, but a power, to their first borns. Usually parents teach their kids about what to do with their powers, and how to control it. But learning control takes many years. You know when I go out to Brenda's farm for a few hours every day?" Newt nodded, hanging on his every word, "I go, with my friends, to practice learning control."

"All your friends have powers?"

"Yeah. All different, but we help each other." The brunette explained. 

"And your mum helped you with them when you were younger?"

"Exactly." Thomas' gaze softened in pity, "Damn. It must have been really shitty to not have anyone to explain it to you. Do you know what you can do?" He asked, Newt shrugging meekly.

"Kind of." he picked at his nails, clearly set on edge by the entire situation, "I can make little thingies of force, like, pockets. And they can lift things, or, you can step on them. Or use them as forcefields, but I'm not very good at aiming them yet. And then I can turn invisible, but I can't control that at all." he admitted sheepishly, the brunette humming.

"Does it happen when you're angry?" Newt frowned up at him, shaking his head.

"No, it happens in place of blushing. So if I was embarrassed or flustered, I'd just disappear. It's why I don’t really have boyfriends, because I don't know how to control it yet." The blond drew his knees up to his chest, sighing slightly.

"Would you like to learn how to control it?"

"Yeah." The blond nodded. 

"Then come with me, tomorrow. My friends and I can teach you how to control it. Show you how great it can be."

"Really?" Newt stared at him hopefully, Thomas nodding. "What powers do they all have?"

"Well," Thomas hummed, "It's not really my place to say. I can talk about mine though."

"What are your powers?" Newt watched him intently, clearly eager to learn about this world that had confused him for so long.

"Pyrokinesis. In English, basically the ability to control fire."

"That's cool." Newt whispered, staring at his hands, "Can you show me?" He asked, rather eagerly. Thomas hummed in agreement, leaning backward and grabbing his candle. He set it on the floor between the two of them, Newt watching the wicks intently. The brunette waved his hand slightly, the three wicks sparking up flames, Newt's eyes widening as they lit up his dark, doe eyes.

"Try to blow them out." Thomas offered, the blond moving forward hesitantly and blowing on the flames. When they did nothing but flicker, the blond frowned and blew harder, still to no avail. The blond sat back, watching the brunette as he waved his hand over them again, the flames dying out, as quick as if someone had thrown water on them, Newt's eyes widening again.

"That's so cool." he murmured.

"Well you're easily entertained."

"Easily entertained?! You just started a fire with your hands!" The blond grabbed ahold of one of his hands, glancing it over with a deep frown. "How can fire come out of these?"

"I find it best not to try and make sense of it." The brunette hummed, Newt slumping in confusion.

"I- I could lift your candle." he offered, letting go of Thomas' hand, allowing him to pull it back.

"Ok. Show me." Thomas nodded, the blond glancing down at the candle. He waved his hand upward a little bit, watching as the candle, supported by a layer of green force, the only way Thomas could describe it, was lifted into the air. Thomas watched as the candle moved upward, directed by Newt's hands, to sit back down in Thomas' palms. "That was good."

"I'm ok with lifting things. It's like, the one thing I know will always work." Newt admitted slightly sheepishly. "I can't always step on the force. And I cannot control the invisibility, at all." 

"Can I see it?"

"If you can make me embarrassed or flustered, I guess." the blond shrugged, picking at his nails. Thomas hummed in thought.

"I dunno. I'll have to work on that." he shrugged. Newt nodded, before glancing back at his roommate.

"Thank you Tommy. For explaining all this to me. It makes me feel a lot better about it all." he smiled a small smile, Thomas shrugging back.

"It's no sweat. We gotta look out for each other."

"As roommates or people with powers?" Newt frowned slightly, Thomas rolling his eyes.

"As friends, dummy."


	5. Five

'Hey guys." Thomas jumped over the stile, offering a hand to Newt as the blond teetered over.

"Tom?" Teresa frowned. "What's Newt doing here?" She asked, the others glancing up at the mention on the blond. Brenda, the only one not having seen the blond yet, threw an impressive glance to Gally, who nodded in understanding.

"Hi." The blond murmured quietly, sticking close to the brunette, who met his friends away from the fence.

"Turns out- Newt is not as normal as I thought." he admitted, Gally blinking in surprise.

"Oh." 

"Uh- Newt, do you mind, giving us a minute?" Thomas asked, the blond nodding.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Newt wandered off back toward the stile, glancing around. Thomas drew in closer to his friends, earning a few curious frowns.

"Basically, Newt had no idea there were other people with powers." Brenda blinked in confusion.

"Wha- how?"

"His parents never talked to him about his powers. He doesn't know how to control them, what we do, or where his powers come from. Well- I explained that last one. But we've basically got a toddler."

"Tom, I'm not sure we're very qualified in teaching powers." Teresa frowned, "Maybe we should go to my dad."

"Oh don't be dumb T. This'll be fun. We can totally do this." Minho waved her off, glancing over Thomas' shoulder at the blond. "We have an empty canvas to play with." Gally elbowed his friend in the side, shooting him a glare.

"You're not allowed to use this as an excuse to muck about with him. You know as well as I do, we gotta teach him well, or shit could go downhill fast." he frowned, the Korean waving him off.

"Yeah yeah, I know. I'm not gonna be a dick."

"Thomas," Brenda turned the attention back to the brunette, "what kind of powers are we talking here? Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

"No, never." Thomas admitted, shaking his head.

"Does it have the potential to be powerful?" She asked, the brunette nodding.

"Definitely."

"All the more reason to go to Dad." Teresa glared down her sister, who waved her off.

"T, it'll be fine. If all hell breaks loose, _then_ we can go to Dad."  Teresa just groaned, nodding with a grumble.

"Just don't overwhelm him." Thomas shot a warning glare at his friends, before turning back to his roommate. He heard Minho mutter _'whatever you say loverboy'_ but he just ignored it and called Newt back over. The blond limped over, seemingly slightly on edge, and so receiving a reassuring shoulder squeeze from the brunette.

"Alright Newt. You've already met Teresa, Minho- and Gally. So this is Brenda. Brenda this is Newt." he offered, his friend greeting the blond warmly. 

"So what can you do?" Teresa asked, the blond blinking at her.

"Uh- well-" he began to shuffle on his feet, and Thomas gently pressed a hand to the small of his back.

"Ok, let's all remember not to overwhelm yeah? Newt didn't even know there was people like him until yesterday." he shot Teresa  look, and the woman just put her hands up in surrender.

"Sorry." Newt rubbed at his arm, the brunette shaking his head.

"Nothing to apologise for." he hummed, "Ok how about this. We'll go around in a circle, I'll tell Newt a bit about your power, you can show off a bit. Then Newt can tell you his."

"Ok." Brenda stood back, Thomas nodding appreciatively at the way she threw herself into it.

"Right, so Brenda has X-ray vision. And the ability to heal people." he explained, Newt watching in awe. Brenda stared at Newt intently for a moment, before frowning.

"Your leg's broken. You broke it when you were younger. Thirteen?"

"Twelve actually, but that's pretty impressive." the blond offered with a small smile. Brenda beamed, turning to Minho who was next to her.

"Minho has super strength and speed." Thomas hummed, the blond perking in interest. 

"What's your favourite food?" The Korean asked, the blond biting his lip in thought.

"Has to be fish and chips. From the sea-side in Britain." Minho nodded, then disappeared. "Uh- what the fuck." Newt glanced at Thomas to see if this was normal, the brunette just nodding back at him.

"Here you go." Minho appeared in front of Newt, the blond yelping in surprise, and glancing down at his hands. In them, was a piping hot meal of fish and chips, wrapped in newspaper. The blonds' eyes widened and he hesitantly took the food from him, unwrapping it with wide, curious doe eyes.

"Th- thank you." He got out, popping a fry in his mouth. "Chip?"

"They're fries, but thanks mate." the Korean took a fry and sauntered back to his place in the circle, Thomas leaning over and stealing a fry.

"Gally also has super strength, but also magnetism. He's working on controlling it, but I think you've almost got it, right mate?' He asked, Gally nodding. Newt perked up and waved at his friend, Gally waving back with a soft smile. He held out a hand above his head, the blond watching intently. Nothing happened for a few seconds, before there was a whooshing sound, like a bullet cutting through the air, and then there was a fork in Gally's palm, the blond widening his eyes.

"A fork for the gentleman." he offered the fork to the blond, who took it with a smile.

"Oh, thank you." he grinned, spearing a fry. Thomas pressed down the spark of jealousy in his stomach, instead turning to Teresa.

"Teresa's are a little harder to demonstrate. She is good with precognition, astral projection, and can sense emotions."

"What do those first two mean?" The blond asked, eating some greasy, battered fish as if he were watching a movie.

"Basically, precognition is seeing the future, but T hasn't gotten very good at that yet. Astral projection means, like, an out of body experience. So we think we have Teresa here, present with us, because her body is here, but really her spirit could be anywhere. She can't do much with the spirit body, she can't touch things, and it does put her body at risk, since it's incapable of self defence in that state, but it comes in useful if you ever need to spy on anyone."

Newt nodded in understanding, Teresa smiling at him.

"So what can you do Newt?" She asked, the blond clearing his throat.

"Well- I'm not quite sure what you would call it, but I can control this, like, green force. I can lift things with it, and step on it sometimes. And then sometimes I go invisible but I can't control that."

"It happens in place of blushing. So if he were flustered or embarrassed." Thomas asked on, the blond nodding.

"Oo! I wanna see!" Brend piped up, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"I've been trying to make him blush since I found out. Nothing's worked." Thomas huffed defeatedly, Teresa strutting forward. She leaned over, cupped her hand to Newt's ear and whispered something into his ear, before leaning back with a smug smirk. Newt looked at her incredulously, before whining.

"I do not!" And then he disappeared.

"Holy shit!" Thomas stepped back slightly, Gally blinking.

"Woah!" They could still see his clothes, and the food he was holding, but any trace of the blond had completely gone. Thomas reached a hesitant hand out, to where Newt's cheek would be, to be met with the feeling of his fingers brushing against soft, _hot_ skin.

"This is so fucking weird." Newt reappeared suddenly, glaring at Teresa and with Thomas' hand on his cheek, which the brunette quickly removed.

"Dude, if you could control that, it would be so awesome." Minho grinned giddily, "Lift me! Lift me!"

"I'm not sure if I'm strong enough for that." The blond muttered, face still thoroughly flushed.

"Do it Newt!" Brenda encouraged, clearly as excited as Minho.

"Don't strain yourself." Thomas hummed reassuringly, the blond nodding.

"I think i can do it." he directed his hands toward Minho, frowning in concentration. The thin layer of force appeared, lifting Minho clean off his feat.

"Woah!" The Korean practically squealed, Brenda gasping.

"Oh my god you're like Violet from the Incredibles."

"He's useful is what he is." Teresa commented with a scoff, watching as Minho was put down gently on his feet.

"Useful?" Newt blinked at her. "Useful for what?" The group went slightly quiet, all glancing at one another. The blond looked at Thomas for answers, the brunette clearing his throat.

"I'll explain."


	6. Six

"So, basically," Thomas cleared his throat, the blond watching him intently. The two of them were walking back to their dorm in the cold, October weather, coats wrapped around them and hands pocketed. "People with powers, have a certain duty. Y'know how in movies and stuff, the people with powers fight bad guys?"

"Of course."

"Yeah, well we kind of do that. We don't fight criminals like the superhero movies suggest, we actually leave that to the cops. We fight- a different type of evil." Newt was watching him with a slight frown, and so he continued, "Right, so there are two types of people with powers. You get born, you discover your powers, and your parents either teach you to use them for good, or for bad. If you're taught to be good, you fight the bad guys, and if you're taught to be bad, then your whole life is basically a power grab."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, most 'evil' families, run machines. These machines strip people of their powers. So, the bad guys, attempt to, kidnap the good ones, or whatever, and strip them of their power. If you're lucky, you live, but you've got to be strong. They then take this power, and inject it into themselves. It's just basic story telling. Bad guy wants to be all powerful, and control the word, Good guys have to stop them."

"How come the police don't help then? Surely if there's enough evil dicks with a shit ton of powers running around, someones bound to notice." Thomas shrugged.

"People only see what they wanna see."

"And- this is dangerous? You can die?"

"Yeah." the brunette admitted.

"And- and have you dealt with people like this before?" the blond frowned, clearly put on edge by the idea of it.

"Yeah, we've had our run-ins. No one major, of course, but the odd one here and there." the brunette hummed, climbing up the stairs with the blond in tow.

"So this is- compulsory? All people with powers have to fight this?" 

"Well, not really. I mean, almost everyone, from when they're sixteen, to when they're forty, does it. You don't have too, but it is kind of frowned upon if you don't have a good reason not to help. We're the people who stop the bad from the innocent. We're really the only defence they've got."

"That sounds, terrifying." Newt murmured, the brunette opening the door to their dorm and squeezing his bicep reassuringly.

"I get it. There's been a lot of information piled onto you in a short space of time. It takes time to process it all." Thomas hummed, Newt sitting down on his bed. 

"Where do you find these people? How do you know where to look?" He asked, Thomas humming.

"Mostly, people with powers stick to groups. Almost every group has someone like Teresa around. She's useless when it comes to battle, but perfect for finding the people." 

"This- this is a lot." Newt ran a hand through his hair, Thomas nodding.  

"I understand. Take your time."

"Thank you Tommy." The blond sat down, opposite to his own, next to Thomas on his bed, patting his hand gratefully. "You've been really helpful. And- patient." he scoffed quietly, the brunette smiling.

"Don't sweat it. It's nothing really." The brunette smiled, Newt glancing at him. 

"Your friends are really sweet." he murmured, Thomas nodding absently as he stared into the blond's doe eyes.

"Yeah. They like you."

"Well, I like them." Newt hummed. "And- I like you too."

"And I like you." Thomas smiled softly, the blond watching him intently. The brunette swallowed and moved his hand underneath Newt's, brushing their little fingers together. Newt kept watching him, Thomas staring back as their fingers wrapped around each others. "I like you a lot." The brunette continued, interlocking more fingers slowly.

"I like you a lot too." Newt breathed, eyes flitting down to Thomas' lips, and then back up. Thomas moved his palm finally, breathing out as they were finally holding hands. Thomas' own eyes moved down to Newt's lips, and only when they got closer did he realise that they were both moving toward each other. The brunette closed his eyes, and sighed.

"Newt, I'm sorry." he pulled back, the blond staring at him in confusion. "I can't do this."

"Oh- ok." The blond seemed taken aback, and so the brunette continued his explanation. 

"It's not you, at all. I mean, fuck, how could it be, you're perfect. It's just, we've only known each other for a month, and I feel like if anything went wrong, we'd be stuck hating each other in the same room. And- ugh, well I kinda still have my rule about no dating."

"But for how long? You said you haven't been with someone since high school, I mean- don't you think it's time to move on? Not everyone is gonna be as much of a dick to you as she was. You can't be scared of love forever." he offered softly. Thomas sighed, nodding slightly.

"No, you are right. And I'm not saying no, because, trust me, I am _very_ interested in you, I just think- maybe we should wait. It's only been a month, and I want to get to know you better before we rush into things."

"Yeah," he nodded, "that's smart. So, what? No, no touching, or..?"

"Let's make some rules," Thomas cleared his throat, Newt nodding in agreement, "So, how about, uh- no sex yet?"

"Good rule." The blond nodded.

"Uh- no kissing yet?"

"Also good." he nodded again.

"And- uh- let's not tell the others about this yet. Trust me, they'll tease us for years." He scoffed, Newt nodding.

"Ok, yeah. Got you. This'll be easy breezy."

"Totally, easy." Thomas nodded, grabbing his phone as it pinged behind him.

**[From Brenda: We're going to a party this Friday, and you're both coming so we can get to know Newt :) ]**

"Ah. Maybe not so easy."


	7. Seven

"Ok Newt," Thomas crossed his arms over his chest, the blond watching him. "The first thing you should learn, is how to walk on your force. It could seriously save your ass, get you a vantage point."

"And it looks cool." Minho tacked on, Gally smacking the Korean over the head. 

"Let's see how far you can get before." Teresa nodded, the blond glancing at the floor. He waved his hand slightly, creating a circle of force hovering slightly off of the ground. He gingerly placed his foot on it, biting his lip when it didn't pass straight through. He waved his hand again, creating another one, next to the first. He hesitantly put his foot onto that one too, smiling when it held his weight.

"That's a pretty great start." Gally offered, the blond grinning at him.

"Thank you." he glanced back down to his shoes, creating another disc slightly above the first set, like a stair. He put his foot down slowly, tripping back to the ground when it passed through, previous forcefields disappearing. "That's about as far as I can get." he admitted sheepishly.

"Well, that's ok." Teresa shrugged, turning to Thomas for instruction. 

"Right," he cleared his throat, "What you've got to do is really focus on it."

"Aren't I doing that already?" The blond raised an eyebrow, the brunette nodding.

"Ok- yes. You are, but you need to picture it." 

"What do you mean?" Newt frowned, Thomas coming to stand next to him.

"Well- when I make fire, I'm picturing a fire being created. And when you lift things, you're picturing lifting them. You don't know it, but you are. Powers revolve a lot around mental imaging and imagining what you want to do in your head."

"You gotta get in the zone mate." Minho offered, Newt nodding in understanding.

"Doesn't sound too hard."

"That's what we all say when we learn." Gally chuckled, "It takes a bit of work, but you'll get it." 

"And don't worry if it takes you a while." Thomas tacked on, Gally nodding in agreement, "parents usually teach their kids this when they're younger, because children's minds are more mouldable. They have no problem creating images, with the imagination you have as a kid."

"So it might be harder cuz I'm past the point of- being mouldable?" Newt raised both eyebrows again, Thomas nodding. 

"Essentially, yes."

"You just gotta picture a staircase where you want one Newt." Brenda finally chipped in, the blond humming. He cleared his throat, cracked his knuckles and waved his hand toward the floor. The first disc was created, and he stepped onto it with ease. He created a second, stepping onto that one too.

"Good start." Gally encouraged, the blond creating the third, and falling through again.

"Ugh. I can already tell this is gonna frustrate me."

-

Attempt after attempt, Newt got a little better each time. Three hours later, Teresa, Brenda and Minho and given up on encouragement, and were now sat on the ground a bit away, playing cards and glancing at Newt every now and again. Thomas and Gally kept working with the blond, encouraging him and giving him tips. They were yet to have a breakthrough. 

"Ok, Newt." Thomas strode up to the blond, who was groaning in frustration. He took the blonds face in his hands and shook slightly. "Clear your head. Start fresh. Stop thinking about how many time you've done this, stop thinking about how you can't do this. Just picture the staircase. Picture you going up it." Newt took a deep breath, nodding as Thomas let go. "Good."

"Ok, ok." The blond rolled his shoulders back.

"Just staircases." Gally hummed, standing back with his arms crossed over his chest. Newt nodded, clearing his throat. He created the first, then the second, and then the third. Fourth and fifth came next, and soon he was about a foot over Gally's head. 

"Holy shit." Minho glanced up, the two woman looking up too.

"Newt be careful!" Brenda called, standing up. Newt glanced up from where he was concentrating.

"Huh- Ah!" The distraction caused his foot to pass through the next disc, and he tumbled off of his new staircase.

"Shit!" Thomas dove at the blond, only to get landed on with a thump. He winced in pain, groaning.

"Oh fuck, sorry!" He heard Brenda yelp, the blond glancing up from Thomas' chest.

"Sorry Tommy." he mumbled, the brunette shaking his head.

"It's ok. Not your fault. Well done, you got pretty far that time." Gally skidded over to them, helping Newt up gingerly.

"You two ok?"

"Mhm." Newt nodded, brushing himself down as Gally pulled Thomas up. Brenda jogged over with the other two in tow, already apologising profusely.

"I am so sorry Newt, I didn't mean to distract you, I wasn't thinking an-"

"Bren', it's ok, really." The blonde smiled softly, the woman frowning.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I would've fell at some point anyway."

-

"Oh my god Son', what do you want, it's late." Newt groaned when he picked the phone up. Thomas glanced into the bedroom from where he was cooking chicken nuggets, before deciding Newt must be talking to his sister. The blond huffed, lowering his voice. "He's my roommate. His name is Thomas." Newt listened, before groaning again and hissing down the line, "No you cannot bang him! You are barely a foetus!" The brunette suppressed a scoff, watching when the blond spluttered, then disappeared. "I'm not having sex with him Son'. Why are you delving into this? Did Dad put you up to th- I'm not changing the subject!' Eventually the conversation seemed to drift away from who was having sex with Thomas, at least enough for Newt to reappear. 

Eventually, Thomas brought out a plate of nuggets, and Newt smiled gratefully at him, and took them.

 _'Do you mind if I finish up?"_ He mouthed, Thomas shaking his head with a smile. "Mhm, yeah. They've been really great. Next time you see me, I'll be better. No- no more hiding from boys- wha- Dad!" he rolled his eyes, the brunette watching in slight amusement, "I'll be better. I'll be able to control it better- I will. You'll see." he listened for a moment, before smiling. "Thanks Dad. I gotta go now though, I gotta eat my dinner. Yeah- yep. Uh huh. Tell Sonya to stop delving into my personal life- yep- love you too. Bye." he hung up, throwing his phone down with another fond eye roll. "Sorry about that."

"Nah, it's ok." Thomas shrugged, biting into a nugget, "So why does your sister want to bang me?" Newt choked slightly, clearing his throat.

"She likes to stalk me online. She noticed who I followed on Instagram, and apparently took a liking to you."

"Lucky me, both Samuels siblings all over me." Thomas scoffed, the blond glaring him down.

"Yeah right. I am not all over you."

"Well you were when you landed on me." He countered, the blond scoffing.

"You made the choice to cushion my fall. I didn't ask you too."

"So no thank you?" He raised an eyebrow, Newt rolling his eyes.

"Fine. Thank you for looking out for me and not letting me hurt myself." the blond cautiously leaned forward, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. "It was sweet of you." he murmured, leaning back. Thomas, however, grabbing his wrist, the blond raising his eyebrows. The brunette leaned forward, meeting him halfway and pecking his cheek back.

"You're welcome."

"You're making this no kissing rule really difficult." Newt grumbled, glancing at their noses, almost touching.

"You started it." Thomas countered, the blond huffing and sitting back.

"Not sure I'd want our first kiss to be after a bunch of nuggets anyway." he shrugged, Thomas mocking offence.

"Um excuse me, are you offending my superb nuggets? They were made with love and care!" Newt snorted, rolling his eyes.

"I bought them!"


	8. Eight

"The main thing you have to learn, is about power surges." Thomas hummed, the blond frowning. They were sat around Brenda's kitchen, playing cards once again, well, all but Thomas and Newt were playing, the brunette deciding instead to teach Newt more.

"What's that?" 

"Ha! Suck it!" Minho cheered, Brenda groaning and flipping him off. 

"Well, most of the times, once you've learnt the basics of control, on a daily basis, keeping your powers in check is fairly easy." The brunette hummed, "A power surge, is an incredible surge of an emotion, that causes your powers to basically- well explode. It's different, depending on your power; for example, when I had power surge, I basically just set fire to everything within about twenty metres of me." he explained.

'When I had one, everything metal within about a mile radius was drawn to me." Gally glanced up from his cards, Newt blinking in surprise. 

"Right. So, yours' would probably be a huge surge of force." Thomas gesticulated, "Which can obviously be quite dangerous."

"Well- how do you control them? Like- do you know when they're coming?" The blond queried, the brunette shaking his head.

"Well it can happen suddenly. For example, if someone came in here right now and told me that my mom was dead, I'd be so overcome with grief, immediately, that I'd just burn everything up. You can't really plan for them."

"Nor can you control them." Teresa huffed, throwing down her cards in defeat.

"Then- what do you do?"

"You try to get somewhere remote, fast. But they're really hard to monitor, so what most people with powers try to do is just suppress their emotions until they're somewhere where no one will get hurt. But sometimes it is just unavoidable." she shrugged, dealing out the cards again.

"That doesn't sound fun." Newt frowned. Thomas furrowed his brow toward the blond, wondering if he'd ever had one. Thomas would've thought, with such a traumatic first years, something would have set him off.

"You think you've ever had one?" He asked, lowering his voice slightly. Newt hummed in thought, biting his lip.

"I don't know if this counts, but when I was twelve, my parents were being awful to Sonya. She'd come home from school, crying cuz some dick had bene mean to her, and then my parent's started calling her names, making her cry even more. I tried to get them to stop, but they wouldn't. I was angry- and- well next thing I knew my dad was flying through the air and hitting the back wall. Turns out I did it. Then they said my powers were a curse, told me they'd beat them out of me. That's when they run me over."

"That's awful." Thomas huffed, his own anger bubbling at his chest. "But- it's an example of a power surge coming in useful. You protected Sonya." 

"I guess." The blond nodded slowly. "Yeah, guess I did." 

That was when the front door opened, and an older man stepped in, surveying the table. Thomas glanced up at him, acknowledging him before turning back to Newt.

"Oh, hey Jorge." 

"Hello Thomas." The man hummed back, "Minho, Gally." then he turned to his two daughters, smiling fondly at Teresa. "Well done on your assignment T."

"Thanks dad." Teresa grinned at him, the man's attention turning to Newt.

"A new face?"

"This is Thomas' boyfriend." Brenda hummed, shuffling the cards. "Newt."

"I'm not his boyfriend." Newt rolled his eyes, smiling at Jorge. "But my name is Newt."

"Good to meet you Newt. I'm Jorge." He nodded back at the table of students, before disappearing into the kitchen.

"Teresa?" The blond asked, the woman glancing up. "I hate to pry- but- why don't you live here?"

"Oh right," she hummed. "I decided I wanted more of college experience, with dorms and roommates and what not. Wanted to be more independent." he shrugged, Newt nodding in understanding.

"Does your dad have powers?"

"Nah, our mom did though." Brenda chipped in, "But she died fighting the evil."

"Oh- I'm so sorry." The blond frowned, Brenda waving him off.

"It's ok."

"Jorge's a doctor." Thomas explained. "He specialises in people with power. Whenever any of us get injured, we come here."

"I guess there'd be a lot of questions asked if you went to a regular hospital." The blond hummed, Thomas nodding.

"Exactly." then he shrugged. "It's ok. He's really good at what he does. I'd trust Jorge with my life."

-

"Tommy?"

"Yes Newt?" Thomas glanced from where he was studying at his desk, the blond with a deep frown on his face, holding a book up with force, hands resting on his stomach.

"Why aren't you fighting the evil? You said everyone over the age of sixteen fights them, and that you use people like Teresa to find them, but- you're not looking."

"Well," The brunette turned, scratching behind his ear, "When I said the thing about finding them- we don't actively seek them out. The way it works, is usually- we'll get a call at about four in the morning from Teresa, telling us to meet at Brenda's farm, and we'll follow her until we find them. She get's dreams- well, not dreams. When there's one close enough, she can sense it- she get's visions in her sleep. That's how we find them."

"So your entire life is a waiting game?"

"I guess so." Thomas shrugged.

"And what if groups don't have someone like Teresa?" Newt flicked the page with his finger, hand dropping back to his abdomen.

"Well- then they find someone. You can't fight the evil without someone who senses them."

"Huh." Newt closed his book with the force then, sitting up and frowning.

"What? What is it?" Thomas furrowed his brow, the blond huffing.

"Do you think- do you think my power has the potential to be dangerous." he asked. Thomas frowned, glancing the blond up and down. Newt's power had the potential to be incredibly dangerous. But he would never want to make the blond scared, or make him feel threatened by himself.

"Well- all powers do."

"No, but I mean- like- more than usual. I just thought- well it's just a force. You can do a lot with force. A lot of damage. I mean- force- with enough of it, can flatten buildings. I mean- what if I have a power surge and I create a crater or something. I just- I don't think I know what I'm actually capable of." Thomas sighed, getting off the chair and sitting next to Newt on his bed.

"Yes, Newt. It has the potential to be incredibly dangerous. But that's why we're helping. And we're gonna test your power surge too."

"Really? How?"

"Make you feel really strong about something." Newt opened his mouth, and the brunette put a finger to his lips to silence him, "Don't worry. We'll stand a good way away. It'll be safe, I promise."

"I know." The blond sighed, "I just worry."

"It's ok." Thomas frowned, placing a hand on the blonds arm, and then frowning. "Hey, you're really tense. You feeling ok?"

"Yeah." Newt nodded slightly. "Just worked up about the whole thing I guess. This is really new- and- intense."

"I get it." Thomas nodded, "Y'know, I think I know something that'll make you feel a little better."

"What?" The blond asked. 

"Well we never said no cuddling was a rule." He shrugged, albeit a little hopefully, Newt snorting and nodding.

"True, true."

-

That was how the two of them ended up on Newt's bed, Thomas scrolling through his phone, and Newt in-between his legs, continuing his reading. They lay in comfortable silence, content in what they were doing. It was only about an hour later, when Thomas noticed the hovering book beginning to wobble around slightly. He frowned slightly, then realised that it was because Newt was getting tired, and having a hard time keeping it up right. 

Eventually, the book snapped shut and fell back onto the bed, and the blond wriggled onto his front and wrapped his arms around Thomas' middle, burying his head into his abdomen.

"Newt, come on. Time for bed, you gotta let go." he coaxed, only getting a grumble of protest back. And then Newt was out, like a light. Thomas blinked down at him in disbelief, unsure of what to do next. Should he move the blond? Try to detangle himself?

Then Thomas came upon the view that it was too comfy to move, and he didn't want to stir the blond, so he just lay back and closed his eyes, thanking the lords that he'd decided not to give his friends spare keys.


	9. Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My next couple of chapters will be quite randomly timed, as I'm going on a long weekend holiday <333 And I don't wanna write a chapter at three AM when I come home, drunk from a wedding lmao. (It's a gay wedding and they have glowsticks so ya'll better pray for me)

"So when was the last time you got drunk Newt?" Brenda grinned, swigging back her beer. The blond hummed, sipping at his own. He clearly wasn't much of a drinker, or at least- liked to drink slower.

'Probably high school? It didn't go very well." he laughed, Teresa scoffing.

"You should probably know- when we get drunk, we get pretty wild." she snorted, Gally rolling his eyes.

"Not me." He turned to Newt, on his left, "I'm the sober friend." Newt laughed, patting his shoulder.

"You truly are doing gods work."

"I'm a fucking saint." The man scoffed, Newt throwing his head back in a laugh again. Thomas watched Gally, trying to figure out what he was thinking. He did still feel bad about pursuing Newt when Gally still liked him- but, well Gally had told him it was ok. 

"So Newt, tell us a bit about yourself." Brenda leaned forward, voice quite loud over the music. Thomas didn't particularly like clubs, but if he had to pick one, it would be the one they were in, since the booths and dance floor were separated, making the music quieter when you decided to sit down and get another drink. It made it more bearable.

"Well- I'm not sure what there is to know." the blond hummed.

"Uhh- oo!" She smiled. "How d'ya break your leg?" She asked. Thomas' eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to say something, when Newt, without hesitation, shrugged.

"Broke it playing football when I was younger. Took too long to get to the hospital, and they were kinda shite, and so it's never gonna heal properly." Thomas tried not to show the bewilderment on his face at how easily the lie rolled off of the blonds' tongue.

"That's sucky." Teresa huffed. The blond shrugged again, laughing. 

The group began to get to know Newt more, over beers, discussing childhood memories, their taste in movies and books, talking about what they were studying and what they wanted to do when they got out of college. 

"Aight." Newt stood up. "My time to pay for drinks, you all want another beer?" He asked. The other five chorused back in thanks and conformation, and the blond trotted off to the bar. The four leaned over the table urgently, Teresa hissing.

"Are you gonna ask him out or what?!"

"What- No!" Thomas glowered back.

"Why?" Brenda whined. "You'd be so cute."

"I have known him for a month!"

"And he's into you!" Teresa countered.

"No he is not." Thomas lied bluntly, Minho leaning back slightly, a smug grin on his face.

"He might not be into you, but that bloke is certainly is into him." Thomas whipped around at the speed of light, only to see a man chatting to Newt at the bar, hand on his thigh. Thomas growled under his breath, clenching his fists.

"Damn Tom, don't set fire to the place." Teresa scoffed, although the brunette could hear the slight worry in her tone, "Just go over there and say he's taken." Thomas huffed, unsure of wether that was the best idea.

"Thomas, I think that's a good idea." Gally frowned. "Newt does not look happy."

"Teresa." Thomas snapped his fingers behind him, eyes never leaving the blond. Teresa stayed silent for a moment.

"He's uncomfortable." She announced.

"Alright, that's it." Thomas stood, ignoring Minho's wolf whistle from behind him as he strode over to the bar. As soon as he got there, he snaked an arm around Newt's waist, who was already practically glaring the man down.

"Hi. Thomas." The brunette held a hand out, the man shaking it begrudgingly.

"Can I help you?" He asked, Thomas clenching his jaw.

"No, I just came to get Newt." he smiled warmly at the blond, who was sending a hell of a lot of gratitude his way.

"Well Newt and I were actually just talking." The man glanced at the blond, who just looked really over the situation. Thomas pulled Newt closer to him, the man either simply being incredibly thick, or was choosing to ignore the fact that Thomas couldn't be any more clearly insinuating that Newt wasn't available.

"Well, we have to go." Thomas countered as calmly as he could, mind buzzing with anger and alcohol. He hadn't really noticed until he'd stood up and marched over, how drunk he actually was. 

"Where?" The man questioned, Newt hopping off the stool.

"It's an emergency." The blond grabbed Thomas' hand, calling after the man as he lead the brunette away. "He's in desperate need of a dick sucking." Thomas just blinked at him, as the blond dragged him into the dance floor.

The two of the wriggled past the cluster of sweaty bodies, pressed together, Newt turning and wrapping his arms around Thomas' neck when they were in the middle of jumping, grinding- or having sex on the dance floor, Thomas couldn't be sure- and smiled at him.

"No one will find us in here." He brought his head closer to Thomas', so he didn't have to yell over the music, Thomas snaking his arms around Newt's waist so as not to get separated. "Thanks for that Tommy." He murmured, one look into the blonds' eyes telling Thomas his roommate was probably as drunk as he was.

"It's ok. That jerk was getting on my nerves anyway." He muttered, the blond cocking his head slightly.

"Why? We're not together- remember?" Sober Newt may have thought that was not a joke to make, but Drunk Newt certainly didn't care, and to be honest, neither did Drunk Thomas.

"Doesn't mean I can't be protective over you." The blond hiccuped slightly, grinning at the brunette.

"Boop." He decided eventually, pressing his finger to Thomas' nose. 

"Thank you." Thomas giggled, the blond smiling warmly.

"You're welcome." The blond shrugged, grabbing him by the hands and waving them around to the beat of the song. Thomas watched their conjoined hands, gesticulating as Newt bounced slightly on the balls off his feet. 

"Is this how you dance?"

"Are you saying anything about my moves? I could win Strictly Come fucking Dancing with this shit if I wanted." he scoffed, Thomas frowning.

"Isn't that the British version of Dancing with Stars?" Newt looked actually offended for a moment, frowning deeply.

"Um no! Dancing with Stars is the American version of Strictly Come Dancing! Because you rip everything off! Everything Britain produces is better than what America does." he huffed, Thomas nodding.

"They certainly produce better looking men." Newt scoffed, letting go of one hand to smack at his chest. 

"Charmer." 

"You know it." He grinned, Newt laughing. He eventually let go of Thomas' hands, glancing back the way they came. 

"We should probably go back to the others." He murmured, more to himself as he frowned, eyebrows dipping adorably. Thomas bit his lip, then huffing with finality.

'Newt?" The blond turned back at the mention of his name, only to be met with Thomas' lips. 

The blond froze for a millisecond, and then wasted no time in kissing back, hands running up to the brunettes hair and scraping lightly. Thomas held him close by his waist, hand going to the blonds cheek, heat from the drink and dance floor radiating off of it. They pulled away after a moment, blinking in each others dilated pupils.

"Should we be doing this?" Newt asked.

"No." Newt pressed back in anyway, kissing with more want. Thomas had no objections, and knew exactly where this was going, not that he cared.

He knew he would probably care in the morning though. But now wasn't the morning, it wasn't the morning yet.

Right now it was Newt. 


	10. Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to write this fucking chapter twice I’m pissed  
> Edit: sorry this chapter is short, like I said I had to write it twice and I was on a time limit whoops

The first thing Thomas noticed when his eyes opened, was the dull ache behind his eyes. He whined slightly at the discomfort, sitting up slowly.

He frowned down at himself. He was naked. Oh no. Had he slept with someone? That was so selfish, he had a fucking roommate.

Oh no.

Newt was probably so pissed.

He glanced over at the blonds bed, only to find it vacant. The brunette swore at himself, rubbing at his eyes.

When he heard a small snuffle behind him, he froze. Oh no. They hadn’t gone home. Thomas turned slowly, swallowing.

Oh.

Well this made things interesting.

Newt’s eyes fluttered open with an adorable scrunch of his nose, as he whined at the back of his throat. He sat up slowly, glancing down with a frown, probably at why he was naked, and not in his own bed. He looked around for a moment, before making eye contact with Thomas.

“Oh.” Newt blinked.

“Yeah.” Thomas sighed.

“We broke a rule.” Newt pointed out.

“Yes we did.”

“But- we were drunk.” The blond tried to reason.

“Right.” Thomas nodded. “And I mean- if we can’t remember it happening, then it technically doesn’t count.” He tacked on.

“Exactly!” Newt nodded.

“So still just friends.” The brunette decided.

“Yeah.”

-

About an hour later, as expected, Teresa practically burst in the door, followed by the others.

“WHERE THE HELL DID YOU TWO G- oh.” Her eyes locked in on a hickey peaking up from Newt’s shirt, and she giggled. “I know what’s going on here.”

“Do you?” Thomas asked, the woman nodding.

“You two did it.” She cackled, Gally stepping forward.

“Thomas, the least you could’ve done was send a text to us whilst you were getting your dick sucked.” Newt threw a glare his way from where he was watering his various plants.

“This isn’t actually what it looks like.” Thomas shrugged, Minho raising an eyebrow.

“You’re trying to tell me, that after you wandered off together to the dance floor, holding hands, you didn’t go home together?”

“Yeah actually. Cuz we went home with different people.” Minho snorted.

“Bull shit.”

“Did you see us going home together?” Thomas countered, the Korean opening his mouth, and then closing it in defeat.

“I’m not convinced.” Teresa hummed. Newt got off of his bed, coming to stand next to Thomas.

“Why do you care so much T? Do I detect some jealousy?” He raised an eyebrow, the woman spluttering as Minho wolf whistled.

“Teresa!” Brenda giggled, the group so caught up in their new target that they missed Thomas and Newt high-fiving.

-

“Thomas?” Gally put some crackers into his basket, Thomas humming in acknowledgment. “Why are you lying about you and Newt not going home together?” He asked, Thomas glancing up.

“We’re not.”

“Yes you are.” He sighed. “Being the only sober one last night, when you two disappeared, I went to look for you. I saw you leaving together, and well- it looked anything like two friends just going home to get pizza.” Thomas huffed, and leaned forward slightly.

“You can’t tell anyone this, ok?”

“Sure.” He nodded, putting some beer into Thomas’ basket.

“Well, Newt and I have been lowkey dating for a bit now.” Gally frowned at that, raising an eyebrow.

“How can you be lowkey dating?”

“Well,” Thomas sighed slightly, going to the till, “we know we like eachother, and we do some couple things, like cuddling and holding hands sometimes, but we have some rules.”

“What rules?”

“No kissing yet, no having sex yet, and no telling you yet.” He shrugged, Gally deadpanning.

“You do realise you just broke all of those rules?”

“God dammit.” Thomas groaned, the man scoffing as they left to store.

“Why do you even have those rules?”

“Well we wanted to hold off on those things, until we knew eachother a little better. And when I can get over myself because of Rachel.” Thomas explained, the man nodding.

“So why didn’t you want to tell us?”

“We just didn’t want to tell you until we knew it was gonna last and be long term.” Gally hummed, nodding.

“Makes sense.” He patted Thomas’ shoulder with a smile. “I’m happy for you mate.”

“I mean, it’s ok if you’re not. I get it.” Thomas tried, his friend shaking his head.

“No no I am!” Thomas smiled warmly, squeezing his shoulder.

“Thanks mate.”

“It’s ok” he shrugged. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to get in the way of you two. You looked like you were about to murder that dude last night, and”  
He prodded at a dark hickey under Thomas’ jaw, “I think it’s pretty clear he wants to make sure everyone knows you’re off limits.” He scoffed.


	11. Eleven

Thomas was studying when he heard Newt sigh for the third time.

“Are you ok?” He asked, turning. The blond was frowning up at the ceiling, and then glanced toward the brunette.

“I need to tell you something. I just don’t know how you’ll take it.” The blond sat up, moving to sit on Thomas’ bed, closer to his roommate.

“Is it bad?” Thomas frowned, turning to Newt, who shook his head with a light furrow of his eyebrow. Thomas could see the cogs spinning in his mind, and the blond huffed.

“Well, y’know the other night?” He started, the brunette nodding.

“I do.”

“The night we had sex?”

“Yeah.”

“Well,” Newt rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly, Thomas frowning. He really didn’t know where this was going. “You may or may not have taken my virginity.”

Thomas blinked at him.

“I did what now?”

“Surprise.” The blond scoffed quietly, Thomas blinking at him again.

“Oh- oh god- Newt I am so sorry.” He groaned, the blond frowning.

“Sorry? What for? I’m not mad about it. I like you a lot, and it’s not like I regret it. I mean- I get it, pretty much everyone in colleges done it already. But I mean- it’s kinda hard when there’s a risk that you might just disappear half way through, y’know?”

“I mean- I’m just sorry you don’t remember it.” Thomas sighed, guilt pressing at his heart. Why hadn’t he used his head? Obviously Newt hadn’t had sex, no one knew about his powers. Idiot Thomas. Idiot.

“Oh no, I remember it. Vividly.”

“O- oh.” Thomas blinked at him, again. “W- I mean- was it ok?” Newt nodded at him, fairly casual about the whole thing.

“Mhm.” Then his expression titled into a light frown, “Do you not remember it?”

“Well- i- I remember bits and pieces. Did you tell me? I wasn’t too- I dunno- rough?”

“No, no. You were sweet about it.” Newt reassured him, Thomas running a hand through his hair.

“And you’re not upset?”

“No! Why would I be?” The blond asked, the brunette shrugging.

“I dunno. Cuz it wasn’t special? I’m just some dude you have a crush on and we fucked after a couple beers.”

“I mean, I think it was special.” The blond shrugged, picking at his nails, clearly disheartened by the notion that Thomas didn’t seem to feel the same way. “I really like you. Like, a lot. Even though we still don’t know eachother that well.”

“Hey,” Thomas took his chin lightly between his fingers, tone softening. “I really like you a lot too. And I’m glad it was special to you.” The blond offered him a small smile, leaning forward and giving him the quickest peck on the lips.

“That was a peck it didn’t count.” He declared, the brunette laughing.

“Sure thing Angel.”

-

Thomas playfully shot a burst of fire at Minho, who easily out ran it with an offended scoff.

“Thomas, I could literally crush every bone in your body.” He threatened, Thomas shrugging.

“Yeah and then I’d get Brenda to help me.”

“So I’d crush Brenda.” The Korean shrugged.

“Hey! Don’t bring me into this!” The woman gasped, glaring at her friends.

“I’ll crush all of you.” Minho cackled, Newt frowning.

“I have a question.” They turned to him, Thomas raising his eyebrows. “If Gally and Minho both have super strength, who’s stronger?”

“We’ve been having this debate for years.” Teresa admitted. “We’re yet to figure it out.”

“It’s me.” Minho whispered to the blond, who scoffed.

“You wish!” Gally shot up. The two began to squabble, Newts phone going off. He picked it up and wandered off slightly to take the call. Thomas watched Minho and Gally square up to eachother, scoffing.

“I think we all know who the strongest person here is.”

“Me!” Minho cried.

“Me!” Gally retorted.

“It’s me.” Thomas shrugged.

“Newt?” Teresa frowned.

“It is not Newt!” Minho retorted. Thomas turned sharply at Teresa’s tone, frowning at Newt.

The blond dropped his phone, eyes on the ground. He looked bewildered- and Thomas couldn’t tell if he’d gotten amazing news or horrible news. The brunette stepped toward him cautiously, watching as Newt stumbled his way forward slightly.

“Newt- are you ok?” Thomas asked softly. The blond glanced up at him, a grin widening.

“I’m bloody amazing!” There was a glow to him, a swelling in the blonds chest.

“Uh- Thomas- I think we have a situation.” Teresa pulled on his arm.

“Oh fuck- Minho!” Thomas turned on his heel, grabbing a hold of Teresa and Brenda and dashing for the Korean. Minho grabbed Gally with one hand, and Brenda with the other.

There was a blur, and then the five of them were stood on a hill, the field they’d previously been in below them.

Newt jumped up and down happily, and for a moment Thomas thought it might just be a false alarm. That was until there was a huge burst of force, that erupted out of the blond. It moved out like a sound wave, sounding like a huge explosion, and flattening the fence and several trees.

“Holy..” Gally trailed off, bewildered. Newt stopped jumping and glanced around, apparently as shocked as the others were.

In another blur, they were back down to the field, Newt staring at the damage he’d done.

“Did I do that?” He mumbled, Thomas nodding.

“Yeah. But it’s ok.” He reassured. Newt ignored him, turning to Brenda.

“Brenda I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to-“

“Hey, hey,” she put a hand on his shoulder, smiling warmly at him. “It’s ok. Easily fixed.”

“Well now we know what your power surge looks like.” Minho hummed, glancing about at the flattened tree.

“What you so happy about anyway?” Gally asked. A small smile fell back onto Newt’s lips.

“My dads getting married. I’m gonna have a mum.”


	12. Twelve

Newt huffed, throwing down the controller as he lost another Mario kart game. Brenda and Gally were sleeping on the couch behind them, Teresa and Minho at class. 

"Tommy?" The blond asked after Thomas had finished his incessant gloating.

"Yes Newt?"

"Will you come with me to my Dad's wedding?" He asked, the brunette ripping his eyes from the screen.

"Wha- Newt- are you sure? That feels like a family thing." He furrowed his brow slightly, Newt shrugging against his side.

"Well it is. But Sonya's bringing her girlfriend Harriet, and they'll be the only people around my age there. They'll go off to snog somewhere, so I asked my dad if I could bring someone, and he said yeah." 

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to intrude.' Thomas frowned, the blond shaking his head in denial. He started a new race, and Thomas returned his eyes to the screen, readying to make another flying start.

"You won't. As much as I love my family, they're all kinda old, or like, really young. And I don't fancy spending my entire day with my five year old cousin asking what I was doing in the loo with my boyfriend Matt at my Aunt's wedding." he scoffed, then cursing when Thomas pummelled him with a mushroom. He shoved the brunette, who just glanced at his roommate.

"Who's Matt?" He asked instantly. Newt rolled his eyes, driving straight off of the road. 

"I hate rainbow road!" He hissed, before answering Thomas' question. "Matt is my ex. What's it to you?"

"Just wondering if he was someone I had to be worried about." The brunette hummed, lapping the blond, who was now going backward.

"Wow you're like a new level of possessive." Newt hummed, groaning when Thomas won, _again._

"I just want people to know you're off limits is all." Thomas shrugged, grinning smugly at his win. Newt huffed at him.

"Well if you don't let me win this next game, I might just go and snog Matt."

-

"Ok you gotta work on aiming your force." Thomas pointed out, Newt cocking his head slightly.

"How? I have tried."

"Well, yeah," The brunette admitted in agreement, "But you gotta properly focus. Like you did before Brenda distracted you." 

"That was hard." The blond whined, "I had a headache for days."

"Hey, you got this." Thomas shrugged. "I'm gonna throw these balls, and you gotta hit them, throw them backward." he explained, the blond frowning.

"I'm not gonna be able to do this." Newt groaned. "My hand eye co-ordination is atrocious."

"Newt, that is not the attitude to have." Thomas scolded. "Let's try. This might take a while to get, but you will get it. Just like you got the walking. What's your new best?"

"Eight metres" Newt hummed, eyes shining slightly in pride.

"Exactly. So you can do this, it just takes patience." Newt hummed and nodded, clearing his throat. "Remember to imagine it, picture it Newt." he advised, the blond taking a deep breath. 

"Ok." Thomas threw the first ball off, watching as it fell back to the floor. He threw the next one, also being pulled down. 

-

Three-hundred and sixty two attempts later, Newt was getting incredibly frustrated. He hadn't been able to defy gravity yet, and Thomas could see him getting worked up. So he hummed and took a different approach. He left the ball on the floor and strode over to Newt, who whined at the back of his throat.

"Tommy I can't do it."

"Hey, yes you can." He advised. "Ok, I'll burst it up yeah, and you blow it backward. You just need to relax and take it easy." Thomas ran his hands over Newt's shoulders, one trailing down to his waist and head resting against the blonds shoulder from behind. His other hand ran down to Newt's controlling arm, tracing down to his hand, squeezing softly. "You've got this." he hummed quietly, Newt swallowing visibly. 

Thomas turned his head fractionally, pressing his lips to Newt's temple, almost too light to register, the blond shifting slightly.

"Ready?" Newt nodded against his head, "3, 2, 1." The brunette waved his hand, fire bursting at the base of the ball and throwing it upward. Newt tensed under the brunette and cleared his throat, waving his own arm. The ball was thrown backward across the field, the blond cracking open one eye hopefully.

"Did I do it?" He mumbled, Thomas smiling warmly against his cheek.

"Yeah you did." Newt opened both eyes, practically beaming when he realised what he'd managed to do.

"I did!" He whipped around, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I did it Tommy!"

"Yeah you did!" Thomas laughed, Newt grinning widely. "Don't get too excited Angel, we don't want another power surge."

-

"Dad says you can come to the wedding." Newt announced, glancing at his phone as he came from the small kitchenette. 

"Oh cool." Thomas hummed from his phone, "I'm guessing I need to wear a suit?"

"Do you have one?" the blond asked, sitting on Thomas' bed. The brunette shrugged, putting his phone back.

"I'm sure I have one somewhere. I'll text my Mom tomorrow." Newt nodded in acknowledgment, pulling his shirt over his head and throwing it onto his bed. Thomas' eyes trailed down the blonds body, hickeys now red and fading. Thomas decided to ignore the intrusive thought about renewing the marks, train of though successfully stopped when Newt put on another shirt. "So what's your new Stepmom like?"

"She's really nice." Newt admitted with a soft, yet distant smile, "Her name's Caroline. She and my Dad have been seeing each other for a while, but I never thought he'd work up the courage to actually ask her." he hummed, falling back onto Thomas' bed and into his awaiting arms. Newt curled up, burying his face into the crook of Thomas' neck.

"You're happy then?"

"Really happy." Newt hummed against his throat. "I've finally got a normal family."

-

It was four AM when Thomas awoke to his phone buzzing like mad. Newt whined against his chest at the interruption, Thomas grumbling.

"I'm sorry." he mumbled, cuddling the blond closer. "Go back to sleep Angel, I'll see what it is." Newt made a noise against his chest the brunette picking up his phone with bleary eyes.

**[From Teresa: TOM MEET US NOW]**

**[From Teresa: BRING YOUR BOYFRIEND]**

**[From Teresa: TOM]**

**[From Teresa: TOM]**

**[From Teresa: TOM STOP FUCKING YOUR BOYFRIEND AND PICK UP]**

**[From Teresa: TOM]**

**[To Teresa: Christ T ok ok, we'll be there in ten.]**

"Newt, we gotta go."


	13. Thirteen

Thomas jumped into the backseat of the car, Newt following. Brenda and Teresa were sat in the front, Minho and Gally behind Thomas and Newt as the car drove off. The blond yawned, rubbing at his eyes.

"How bad is it?" The brunette asked, Teresa humming.

"Not too bad. Bad enough- we'll take em easily." she shrugged, turning out onto the road. 

"Far?" Thomas asked, Teresa shrugging again.

"I'm thinking about two hours." Newt immediately slumped against Thomas' shoulders, curling up and closing his eyes. Teresa raised an eyebrow at him through the rear view mirror, Thomas just wrapping a hesitant arm around the blond and shrugging lightly.

"He's not used to this yet, cut him some slack."

"Sure." 

-

"Ok. We're here." The woman announced, parking in what seemed to be the middle of the forest. The sun was beginning to peak above the foliage, as Thomas gently shook Newt awake.

"Hey, Newt, come on." He hummed, the blond's eyes fluttering open with a confused noise.

"Why am I here?" He asked, voice raspy from sleep, "I won't be helpful. I'm not good enough to control my powers yet." he mumbled, Thomas nodding in acknowledgment.

"You're gonna watch, Newt." Gally leaned forward as Thomas and the blond got out of the car, followed by him and the Korean.

"You'll learn a lot from demonstration." Minho advised, Newt humming. 

The group started deeper into the forest, Teresa leading them steadily but surely. After about half an hour, she stopped dead in her tracks, peering into a clearing from some particularly thick forest. 

Inside, there was a man, rigging up a large machine. It was a box, with what looked like several pairs of handcuffs coming from it. Thomas saw Newt frown in confusion.

"That's the machine. They rig you up in one of those sets of handcuffs, and take your powers." He murmured, Newt's frown only deepening.

"Why set it up in a clearing in the woods?"

"Well, the machines are what draws Teresa to them. They know some of us will be coming. So they set it up somewhere quiet and alone, so it's easier." he shrugged, the blond furrowing his brow.

"Are you guys ready?" Brenda asked, the others nodding. 'Stay here Newt. Watch and learn." she grinned, before stepping out into the clearing. Her friends followed her, Thomas rolling his sleeves up.

"What's your name then?" She asked, the man glancing up. He had grey hair, and an ageing face, a deep scar down one cheek. He seemed unfazed to see them, maybe even glad.

"What might yours be?" He shot back, the woman crossing her arms over her chest.

"I think I asked first." she retorted, the man smiling.

"My name is Randall. Yours is?" 

"I'm Brenda. These are my friends: Thomas, Minho, Gally and Teresa. We've come a long way to find you."

"Is that so?" Randall raised an eyebrow, coming to stand between them and his machine. "I feel honoured."

"Aw, I'm glad." She smiled. The man grinned a wicked grin, waving his hand. Rock was ripped from the ground, elevating just above his head. He waved his arm again, the debris flying at the group. They immediately scattered, Minho going straight for the machine. 

Randall turned as soon as he got there, whipping a rock around and throwing it at the Korean. It hit his skull with a deafening crack, Brenda immediately making a beeline for him. She was cut off by the rock, Thomas cracking his knuckles behind the man. 

As Randall had his back turned, the brunette waved his arm toward the machine, lighting part of it up. Most machines were made to be fire proof, but there was only so much protection you could give to the inner mechanics, which were definitely flammable. 

A boulder was launched at him, the man diving out of the way, rolling to Gally's feet. His friend was focusing on the machine, working on taking the metal apart and bringing it to him. A rock was thrown at the two, Gally only shielding it with his shoulder and breaking it in two. Thomas got up on his feet, lighting up his hands. He just had to protect Gally long enough for him to take the casing apart. 

He glanced toward Brenda, who dodged over the boulder and took Minho's unconscious form in her arms, closing her eyes. Randall took the opportunity to throw a lump of rock at her, in her vulnerable state. Thomas' eyes widened, it had all happened so quickly.

A few centimetres away from impact, Minho shot up, shielding the two of them with his arms, the rock splitting and landing on either side of them. Randall turned his attention back to Gally, throwing his rocks and debris back at the two of them. Thomas blew them back with burst of fire, occasionally tugging Gally around to avoid the ones that got too close. 

Teresa ran at Randall, distracted, jumping on his back and rolling on the ground, bringing him with her. He scrabbled to get back up, Teresa being rolled onto the ground, underneath him. He brought down a punch, the girl blocking it easily with her training, flipping the two of them with her feet. 

"Duck!" Gally yelped, Thomas dropping down as metal flew at him, missing his head by a few inches. The brunette glanced back at the machine, cogs and wires now on show. With a simple wave of his hand, the whole thing lit up, and he stood back up with a satisfied huff. Brenda helped Minho to his feet, Teresa rolling onto his back and pinning his arms behind his back.

"One more down." She grinned up at them. Brenda hummed, passing her sister her phone. Teresa scanned a code on the back of Randall's neck, getting off of him as handcuffs materialised around his wrists.

"Come on. I'm fucking exhausted." Gally groaned, the five of them leaving Randall on the floor and making their way back to Newt.

"You did really good guys." The blond looked a little pale when they reached him, "I was a little worried for a few moments."

"It can get dangerous." Minho admitted.

"Why did you leave him?" He asked, sparing Randall a last glance as they made their way toward the car.

"You scan their neck, and they're notified to the GOPOP." The Korean continued.

"The what now?" Newt blinked at him, Minho laughing lightly.

"The Government of Protection of Powers. They put away all the power hungry pricks. In about half an hour, a helicopter will come over here and pick him and his machine up." he explained, Newt frowning. He frowned a lot.

"That sounds like a big organisation."

"It is."

"How does no one know about it? Where are they? Where do they keep everyone?"

"In the Sahara Dessert." Minho pocketed his hands, Newt raising his eyebrows.

"Really?"

"Yup."

-

"I thought you two were really amazing." Newt smiled over his milkshake, Thomas and Gally thanking him. "I mean, you two really had your backs."

"Well, we try." Gally shrugged, smiling softly at the blond.

"I mean Gally, you were awesome. You broke one of those boulders in two! With your shoulder! That's so cool!" Newt grinned at him, his friends' ears tinting slightly. "I've never seen strength like that. It was so cool." he rambled excitably, Gally smiling.

"Thank you." Thomas swallowed down his slight twinge of possessiveness. He knew it was stupid, and not fair. But he couldn't help it. How was he not supposed to feel possessive when the guy he was lowkey dating and the guy who had a crush on him were eyeing it up. 

That was until Newt's eyes fell on Thomas', and his eyes dissolved into pure affection and all things soft. Like candy floss at a carnival, or a soft spring day. 

"You were perfect Tommy."


	14. Fourteen

"Remind me again how you're introducing me?" Thomas asked, doing his cufflinks up in the mirror. Newt hummed from behind him, chewing on his lip.

"Well- what would you be comfortable with?" He asked, cheeks tinting slightly. The brunette shrugged.

"I don't mind really. If you wanna introduce me as your friend- or your boyfriend, doesn't make much difference to me."

"If I introduce you as my boyfriend, we're gonna have to be couply all day." The blonds retorted, tying his laces carefully. 

"Are you ok with that?" Thomas asked, turning to the blond, who sighed, doing up his tie with a wave of his hand as he tied his other shoe.

"Are you?"

"Sure." Thomas shrugged, Newt glancing up at him.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Maybe it'll help me get over my fear. This could be good for us." he decided, the blond smiling.

"Great."

-

"Dad, Sonya." Newt knocked on the door, the two others turning around from where his daughter was doing up Vince's tie.

"Theres my boy!" He grinned, Sonya offering a nod to her brother. "Who's this then?" He asked, Thomas coming to stand next to the blond. The brunette offered his hand to Vince, who shook it firmly.

"My name is Thomas."

"Well it's nice to meet you Thomas, I'm Vince. Newt's father." He smiled, Newt putting a hand on the brunettes bicep.

"This is my boyfriend." Thomas' heart fluttered slightly, even though he had been expecting that. It was going to be amazing to spend the entire day pretending to be with Newt. He was convinced this would help him get over Rachel and the damage she'd left. Maybe by the end of the night he'd believe Newt wasn't going to hurt him. "And he's helping me control my powers." Vince beamed softly.

"Well, I suppose I owe you my gratitude. Newt's always needed someone like him."

"I knew you were dating him!" Sonya giggled, her brother groaned.

"Well I'm going to go get in position." Newt rolled his eyes, smiling at his family. "You'll do good out there Dad. You look beautiful Sonya."

"You look beautiful too." She quipped back, Newt flipping her off and leading Thomas out of the room, but not before Sonya winked at him.

-

"Congratulations Caroline!" Newt smiled at his new adopted Step-mother at the party.

"Thank you sweetheart." She drew the blond into a tight hug, before drawing back. "Who's this then?"

"This is my boyfriend Thomas." Newt grinned, finding his hand with his own. Thomas smiled at the beautiful, mousy haired woman.

"Hi. Congratulations, you look very beautiful today." He offered, the woman smiling warmly.

"Why thank you! Quite the charmer you've got there Newt." She laughed, the blond nodding.

-

"Boop." A cold smudge was put onto Thomas' nose, and he blinked at it.

"What's that?"

"Icing." The blond giggled, the brunette rolling his eyes. He swiped the icing from his nose and smudged it on Newt's cheek. "That's cold!"

"Well you started it." Thomas laughed, Newt smiling at him from across the table.

"What you think of my family then?" he asked, eyes soft in the dark light as he wiped off the icing with his napkin.

"They're sweet. Although Sonya has winked at me." he scoffed, the blond rolling his eyes.

"She always likes the ones I choose. Apparently my good choice in men is the only reason she has me round."

"So she can stare at your boyfriends?" Newt nodded, Thomas scoffing. He furrowed his brow, leaning closer across the table, to be heard over the music. "So how many boyfriends have you had?"

"Well," Newt hummed, "Before you there was Matt. And Alby."

"Did they know about your powers?" Thomas inquired, the blond shrugging. 

"Matt broke up with me for them. He was the roommate I told you about. I hid them, and then when he found out, he thought I was a freak and tried to get as far away from me as quickly as possible." He murmured, rather sadly. Thomas reached out and took his hand across the table, offering him a small squeeze.

"That sucks."

"Well- y'know. I don't blame him." he cleared his throat, straightening in his chair slightly, "Alby knew about them, he didn't have an issue, he just told me to not use them around him, said they creeped him out. Which is fair enough, I get that. Anyway- we were in high school, and he wanted to take things to the next level. Every time we tried, I disappeared. Eventually, he got mad, told me to stop. I told him I couldn't control it, and he told me to learn. So I tried, I did of course, because I really liked him. But I couldn't control it- and he decided to find someone easier to be with." Thomas sighed, hurt and anger flushing through him. He figured you had to be pretty selfish to just give up on someone like that, especially when they were trying so hard for you.

"What a dick." He huffed, Newt shrugging.

"Eh. What about you? Any girlfriends or boyfriends, other than Rachel?"

"Not really. Like I said- mainly went for fuck buddies. I hooked up with Teresa one time. Then Brenda." 

"Really??" Newt's eyebrows shot up, and Thomas laughed.

"Yeah."

"You don't act like it."

"Well y'know. It was a while ago, it's all in the past." Then he scoffed, "I hooked up with my professor too."

"Thomas!" 

-

"We're dancing now." Newt decided, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him up. Thomas blinked, following his roommate blindly.

"Are we?"

"Yes."

"You're the boss." The brunette shrugged, Newt scoffing.

"I know." he stopped in the middle of the dance floor, smiling warmly. Thomas pulled him close with a grin, the blond resting his head on the brunettes shoulder. They swayed together slightly, just content to be in each others presence, Newt humming slightly. "This is nice."

"I've really enjoyed today." Thomas murmured back, Newt's lips raising against his throat.

"I'm glad. I've really enjoyed today too."

"i'm getting better. I'm getting there slowly." he mumbled, the blond glancing up.

"Slowly but surely?" He asked, Thomas humming with a  soft smile.

"Slowly but surely."

-

Newt giggled as he shoved Thomas in the cab.

"Move your arse!" He giggled, Thomas swaying and sitting back. Newt sat in too, leaning forward to give directions to the driver as he sat back and put his seatbelt on.

"Your accent is so hot." The brunette declared, Newt scoffing. The two were borderline drunk, careful to make sure they didn't drink enough to end up having sex again, but certainly drunk enough to have lost their brain to mouth filters. 

"I think yours is." Newt decided, Thomas furrowing his brow.

"Mines so boring. Everyone has my accent." 

"Noooo,' Newt protested, 'no one has tommy's voice." he mumbled, Thomas smiling happily. 

"I'm glad Alby broke up with you." He announced, Newt furrowing his brow in a deep frown.

"Why?"

"Because you deserve better!" He continued with an angry huff, "And I'm better than him." 

"Are you?"  Newt giggled, Thomas nodding furiously.

"Yes! And I will treat you better than he ever did!" Newt smiled warmly.

"I'll hold you to that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the next chapter is gonna be late, my first week at school has left me d r a i n e d. But! Tomorrow I will hopefully be posting the next chapter of this and then the second part of the wedding in DNA. So I hope that makes up for it lmao. Thank you for your support as always <333


	15. Fifteen

"Hi." Thomas grinned sheepishly, as his friend opened her bedroom door, clearly just woken up, and clearly, unimpressed.

"What do you want Thomas?" Brenda groaned, letting him in.

"I need you. I bruised my thumb." He whined, motioning to the dark purple under his thumbnail. She glanced at it and winced.

'How did you manage that?" She asked, taking it into her palm and closing her eyes.

"I was a bit tipsy last night and I shut it in a cab door." He huffed, smiling gratefully when she released his now, good as new thumb. "Thank you."

"Did you go out last night?" Brenda inquired, pulling off her shirt as Thomas sat on her bed. The two of them had never had an issue with getting changed around each other. They'd seen each other naked anyway, they didn't really care at this point. 

"Yeah. Went to Newt's Dad's wedding." he explained, the woman humming as she pulled on a different top.

"Oh yeah? Have fun?"

"Yeah, we did." Thomas hummed, glancing over his thumb, "It was fun."

"Real talk though Thomas," Brenda turned back to him, raising an eyebrow. "Are you going out with Newt or not?" She grinned, the brunette groaning.

"No, I'm not. He has a thing for the guy he went home with when we went clubbing." He shrugged, his friend humming.

"You jealous?"

"I just want him to be happy." Thomas shrugged. "What about you? Anyone you're seeing?" He asked, expecting a fairly uneventful answer. Instead, his friend turned away, a soft smile playing on her lips.

"There might be." She hummed, the brunette shooting up.

"Brenda! Who?!" The woman scoffed, calming him with her hands.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Thomas." She rolled her eyes fondly, "His name is Frypan -well, it's not but that's just what everyone calls him- and he's very sweet."

"Does he know?" He asked, the woman nodding.

"Has a cousin with powers. He's sweet about it. I think he's great." she smiled softly, Thomas grinning at her. The two of them had met when college started, but had always felt close- like brother and sister. Which made it weirder when they hooked up with each other, but they didn't like to talk about that. 

"Well I'm very happy for you."

"Thank you."

-

When Thomas got back to their dorm, Newt was sat on the floor and drawing flowers onto his small, watering can. What a cutie. Fucking angel.

"Hey." He smiled, the blond glancing up.

"Oh hey. Brenda fix you up?" He enquired, Thomas nodding and flashing his thumb toward the blond.

"Yep."

"Good." Newt turned back to his handy work. The brunette sat down opposite him, watching as he carefully and precisely drew cartoon flowers onto his watering can, fairly content with doing his own thing. "Did you have fun last night?"

"I did." Thomas smiled, "do you think your family liked me?"

"I think they thought you were great Tommy." The blond hummed absently. 

"Oh good." Thomas hummed, "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah." His roommate admitted, "Lots of fun."

"Well I am very glad." Thomas hummed. 

"There's been a picture posted of us." Newt grabbed his phone from his bed behind him, scrolling through for a moment, before handing it to Thomas. 

"Oh?" The photo was one of the two of them dancing, Thomas grinning at Newt, who's head was thrown back in laughter. His arms were wrapped around Newt's waist, one arm wrapped around Thomas' neck and the other pressed against his chest. The lighting was a pale yellow, causing everything, especially Newt's hair to look golden.

"Aw, this is really cute." He smiled.

"You think so? I like it." Newt admitted with a content hum, turning back to his work.

"Yeah, you mind if I send it to myself?" 

"No, course not." Newt shrugged, turning his watering can to Thomas, "Do you like it?"

"It is gorgeous." He grinned, sending the photo to himself and handing the phone back to its owner.

"Thank you!" Newt grinned proudly at his artwork as Thomas' phone went off in his pocket. He saved the photo he had sent himself, and then set it at his phone background. 

"Perfect." He hummed,

"What is?" Newt blinked up at him.

"You, duh." He scoffed, Newt rolling his eyes and nudging at him with his foot. 

"I will move out." he huffed, Thomas laughing.

"No you won't. It'll take too long to make sure your plants are perfectly 3.7cm apart. You're still trying to perfect that here." he shrugged. Newt cocked his head slightly, hair flopping into his eyes.

"How did you know that it was 3.7cm?"

"Well I know you." he shrugged. Newt blinked at him for a moment.

"You know me?" He repeated quietly. Thomas frowned slightly, confused at the sudden softness in his tone. 

"Yeah?" 

"Does that mean we're getting closer to being together?" He asked, "Since you know me well enough now?" Thomas was slightly taken aback by that, opening and closing his mouth several times. After the moment of silence, Newt immediately back peddled, "I mean- it might not be- I- I get it- sorry." he rambled, Thomas shaking it off with a soft smile.

"No, no," he reassured, "We are! I think- yeah, we are. I'm almost there, I promise Newt." he smiled softly, the blond biting his lip with a small smile.

"And then we can kiss?"

"Yeah, then we can kiss."

"And people can know?"

"Yep." Thomas nodded, Newt smiling with a satisfied huff.

"I look forward to it."


	16. Sixteen

"Ha!" Gally threw his hand down, Newt groaning.

"Why do you keep winning?" He whined, the others huffing in defeat.

"Because I am amazing at cards Newtie." His friend grinned, ruffling up his hair. The blond huffed, shaking off his hand with a pout. Gally laughed, gathering up the cards again and shuffling them.

"I think you're cheating." he grumbled, his friend scoffing. 

"I think you're a sore loser." he shot back, the blond throwing a glare across at him. Gally just shook it off, handing out the cards and starting a new game. Thomas huffed at his cards to himself, glancing at Newt. The man was glowering daggers into his cards, the brunette biting down a laugh at Newt's lack of poker face.

"Newt? You understand we all know you have shit cards right?" Minho picked up on it, Newt just shooting him down with a huff. The six put down their cards, Gally throwing his down with a smug smirk. Newt's eyes lit up and he slammed his cards down.

"Shit cards my ass!" Thomas scoffed fondly at the blond, who was boasting in Gally's face. "Ha. Ha. Ha."

"Watch yourself Samuels." Gally threatened playfully.

"Or what?" Newt retorted back with a smug smile. 

"Or-" The door burst open, Jorge kicking it open. He had a man, about their age slung limp, held up by the man on his own, large gash down one side of his face. The group immediately shot up, clearing the table and allowing Jorge to lay the man down. Newt hung back, dumbstruck by the entire situation, frowning down concernedly at the man.

"Do I heal him Dad?" Brenda asked, rolling her sleeves up. Her father just shook his head, grabbing some tweezers from a first aid kit resting at the wall. 

"Not yet. He's got some shrapnel stuck in there. I need to get it out first." He knelt down to the man, clicking his fingers absently. "Thomas." The brunette made his way around the table, lighting up his hand and keeping it close, becoming a personal moving light. Teresa frowned down at the man with pity, fingers brushing against his forearm.

"He's scared. Terrified." She whispered, Jorge picking at rock and metal inside the deep wound, just above his temple. 

"What happened to him?" Newt murmured, the woman shrugging.

"I don't know. He's beat up pretty badly." She observed. "Where did you find him Dad?" Jorge glanced up from his work for a second, addressing his daughter.

"Found him coming out of the forest. He's got powers, he was flying. Definitely away from something. He collapsed and I just brought him here."  He kept prodding out small bits of debris from the man, Thomas frowning deeply.

"Was this close?"

"Just the other side of the field." The older man hummed absently, work precise and careful. The brunette turned to Newt and Gally, who were stood together. The blond was clearly quite shaken, obviously this being his first time seeing an injury that bad. He supposed what Newt's destiny was, had just suddenly become a lot more real. And a lot more dangerous. The brunette felt quite bad for the blond, and gave him a job that would give him an opportunity to get some fresh air.

"Newt, Gally. Go outside and just check everything's normal, yeah?" He advised, the two nodding. The blond followed his friend from the room, Jorge taking a step back. 

"Ok Brenda, go ahead." He allowed, his daughter putting a gentle palm on the dent in the mans head. She closed her eyes and hummed a sigh, pulling back a few moments later. The skin and tissue now repaired, Jorge worked to clean the blood. Brenda attended to the smaller, less noticeable wounds.

"How could this happen? What's out there?" Minho frowned deeply, arms crossed over his chest as he observed the man.

"It might just be nothing." Brenda shrugged. "He might just be inexperienced, and ran into some moderate trouble. Just out of his depth." she theorised, Minho's eyebrows creasing in skepticism.

"He's our age. If he's anything like us, it'd have to be something kinda major to do that damage." he acknowledged, Thomas putting his palm out and pocketing it.

"And where is his group?"

"Maybe he's like Newt?" Teresa threw in, her father shaking his head.

"He knew how to control his flight- and quite well from what I saw. He's not inexperienced. Something's wrong." A deep unease settled in Thomas' gut, the sort he couldn't shift no matter the amount of times he swallowed and sighed in discomfort. Gally and Newt re-entered, the blond making a beeline for Thomas, the one he seemingly felt most safe around. Newt clearly trusted Thomas to know everything, to quell his anxieties about things. Thomas felt awful about not being able to continue the trend.

"Is there anything?" He asked, Newt shaking his head.

"It's quiet. Really quiet." He murmured, eyes searching Thomas' for their usual reassurance. When he couldn't find any, the blond swallowed thickly and glanced at his shoes. It wasn't exactly fair on Newt. This was all so new to him, he was being taught by people who were supposed to know everything about this. And now they were all in a situation, where they already seemed quite out of their depth. Thomas wasn't happy with that, and he wasn't happy with Newt having to be involved. 

"Almost too quiet." Gally hummed. "Like the birds are too scared to sing." 

"Or they've run." Newt tacked on quietly.

"Or maybe we're just over-reacting." Thomas advised, offering the blond a small hand squeeze, out of the view of the others. "We don't know anything for certain yet, so there's really no point in making assumptions about what we're up against. We don't even know if someone with powers did this. He'll probably wake up soon, tell us it was just a situation that went wrong, and he'll be on his way."

"Let's just hope you're right Thomas." Jorge hummed.

-

Thomas found Newt, sat on the fence, chewing on his nails, whilst they waited for their new friend to wake up. They were silent for a few minutes. before the blond sighed, eyes still trained forward.

"Has anything like this happened before?"

"Like what?' Thomas asked, despite knowing really what Newt meant.

"Something that could be something awful. Something you're not sure how to deal with." he murmured, the brunette sighing. What was the point in sugar coating it?

"No. I'll admit, nothing like this has happened. But there's no point overthinking this Newt. It'll most likely be nothing." he advised, the blond huffing. 

"Doesn't make it any less terrifying. I mean- the thought of that happening, when you're fighting. You can die." he murmured to himself. "I'm not sure I want to die."

"Newt, you won't die. You're gonna be ready by the time you go into your first fight, I promise." he glanced at the blond, eyes still forward and lips bitten.

"I can't control my powers. And something bad might be out there. I just- that poor guy's really bad. And that's just because of who his parents are. I mean- I know we have too and all. But I'm not sure I really want to fight. I mean- I didn't sign up for this."

"I know." Thomas hummed.

"I mean I get that this is all you've ever known, but it's _really not_ all I've ever known. I have lived a pretty normal life, with normal people. I have a loving family, y'know, I have a degree I'd quite like to get. I mean, yeah, my life would be a lot easier if I learnt how to control my powers, and you know I'll always be eternally grateful that you guys are teaching me. I just don't understand why I have to give my life to a cause, that I didn't even know existed until a few months ago. Why should I have to be thrown from my normal life, into a war where I might have to die, to save a community of people I had no idea I was apart of until very recently? Does that sound right to you?"

"No, and you're right." Thomas admitted, reaching out and squeezing his hand gently. "It's not fair. But-well, I don't fight for people with powers."

"You don't?" Newt frowned, clearly thinking he had mixed something up along the way.

"No." The brunette shook his head, "I fight for my family. I fight for my Mom to keep dressing up to go on dates with her boyfriend, and feeling good about her appearance. I fight for Chuck, so that he can go to school every day and work up the courage to ask out Emily Scott. I fight for you, so that every day I can wake up, just for my heart to swell whenever I see you snuffle. I fight, because if I didn't, bad people would end up hurting the people I love and the people I care about. They would make it a depressing, and chaotic world, and that's not right. So I fight because I want to keep people I love happy."

Newt watched him for a long moment, eyes searching for something, before ending on agreement.

"I think I can fight for that too."


	17. Seventeen

Three hours later, the man spluttered and awoke with a hacking cough. Jorge was at his side immediately, propping him up in a position that would make it easier to clear his cough. Thomas and the others stood, waiting for the man to finish spluttering. He eventually did, slouching back with a groan.

"Hi." Thomas started. The man glanced around the group, eyes landing on the brunette at the end of the table.

"Where am I?" He cracked out, voice cracking and straining.

"Somewhere safe." Was all Thomas disclosed. "What's your name?" The man squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, before rubbing at his eyes.

"Zart." he offered quietly.

"Well Zart, my name is Thomas. These are my friends- Jorge, Brenda, Teresa, Minho, Gally and Newt." he pointed around at the group, peering down at their new subject of interest. Thomas decided it was best not to be too nice to this guy. They couldn't be sure he was one of the good guys yet. "You well enough to answer some of our questions?"

"That depends on who you're working with." Zart narrowed his eyes in skepticism, fists clenching. "Are you with him?"

"With who?" Teresa raised an eyebrow, arms crossed over his chest.

"With Janson." Zart practically spat the name. Newt winced at the way he said it, visibly swallowing.

"Is that who you were running from?" Thomas pressed, their new friend nodding.

"He killed them. All of them. My group- he took their powers, and murdered them in cold blood." He sat up, clearly passionate and riled up.

"And you ran?" 

"I had nothing else to do. It wasn't safe, I would've died. I ran, and ran, for miles. I made it to a field- and that's the last thing I remember." he mumbled, allowing himself to be given pills by the doctor.

"So we're safe? He's not close to here?" Thomas pushed, Zart shaking his head.

"He shouldn't be. I don't think he followed me."

"Why not?" Newt piped up, deep frown tracing his brow. "You can fly right? Surely that's a pretty good power to absorb?" He glanced at his friends to see if he'd made a good point, Minho nodding in agreement.

"He- he has so many powers. I don't know what he's done. How many people he's killed." Zart murmured, suddenly far away, eyes bolted at the wall. "I've never seen anyone as powerful as him. He let me go because he doesn't need my powers.  And he knows I'd tell others- more prey running straight for him." His voice dropped low, almost to a whisper.

"What powers does he have?" Minho asked, clearly skeptical.

"Everything." The man muttered, "He used rock, and water. He could fly, and he could hypnotise. He- he put my friend in a trance. She didn't even know she'd been impaled until he snapped his fingers." He breathed brokenly. He took a deep breath, clearly struggling with the imagery repeating in his mind. Teresa put a reassuring hand on his forearm, only to wince at something she'd seen. "He turned my friend to stone. He broke the earth beneath our feet. I've never seen anything like it." He continued. "He'll be coming for you. Your powers."

"How long have we got?" Thomas muttered, arms crossed over his chest.

"I don't know. But you have to prepare. You have to be ready."

-

"Thomas, this is bad." Minho muttered, the brunette running a hand over his face.

"Yeah, no shit mate. We've never dealt with something like this before."

"Well how do we deal with it?" Teresa frowned, chewing on her nails.

"We just have to do what Zart said. Prepare. Make sure we have a plan. Don't underestimate our opponent."

"This is all well and good, but all of you are kind of forgetting a pretty big factor." Brenda piped in, eyes trained on the door into where Newt was helping Jorge with Zart. 

"What?" Minho frowned.

"Newt." She shrugged, glancing around, shocked when she was met with blank expressions. "Oh my god guys. Newt is in danger. If this Janson bloke get's wind of what he can do, if he gets Newt's powers- it could be devastating!" She hissed, acutely aware that the door was ajar, "Imagine Newt's powers, mixed with control and practically every other power imaginable. Does that sound like a good match to you?"

"Shit, you're right." Her sister muttered, chewing becoming more incessant. Gally nudged at her elbow to stop, the woman dropping her hand with a huff. "We have to protect Newt."

"Or- he just doesn't come with us to get this guy." Minho shrugged, Teresa frowning.

"Is that fair?"

"He'd thank us. He doesn't know what he's doing- he's gonna get himself killed. Hell, _we're_ out of our depth. He'd be dead within seconds." He justified, Thomas taking a deep breath and weighing up the arguments.

"He's got a point." Gally muttered reluctantly, "but how do we stop him from going? You know Newt would never willingly stay behind."

"Well we could think of that nearer the time. I'm just saying- it's not safe for Newt. And Bren's right, in the wrong hands, that power could be devastated. It's better he stays behind." Thomas glanced through the crack in the door at the blond. Newt was holding Zart's hand, pulling a bandaid apart with his teeth. The brunette sighed with reluctance, nodding slightly.

"Yeah. You're right." He hummed toward Minho, his friend nodding.

"How are we supposed to plan for this guy anyway?" Gally hummed, frown deepening.

"Look him up?" Teresa suggested, getting shot down with Minho's eye roll.

"Yeah because theres gonna be a record of a guy who goes by 'Jason.' I mean, the only thing we know about him is that he has seemingly ascended powerdom. We're basically fighting a final boss." His friend rolled her eyes, shooting back.

'Ok. How do you plan for fighting a final boss then?" She rephrased Gally's question, the Korean humming.

"You just train. That's all you can do."

"We already train, and I suddenly feel greatly unprepared for this." Brenda muttered with the same level of sarcasm as her twin.

"We can do it." Thomas reassured. "It'll be fine. We've never lost before, we're not about to start now." 

"Thomas- he killed Zart's entire group." Gally rebuked, his friend simply patting him on the shoulder.

"We're not Zart's group. We're our group. We train every day- we have Teresa to find him. We have Minho to fight him, and we have Gally and I to destroy the machine. We have Brenda to heal us- and it's going to be ok. We have everything- and everyone we need for this to go right. He's one person- and we are a group that would trust each other with their lives. This is cheesy, trust me, I know, but- if anyone can do it, it's us."

"Thomas I am really praying you're right." Benda huffed.

"I'm always right."

"If you're not I'll kill you." She shot back.

"If I'm not I'll be dead."

"Cheery." Gally stuck in.

"Always."


	18. Eighteen

"Ok, go go go." Thomas hissed, peaking around the corner. Gally sauntered into the room as casually as possible, with all of the weight of their operation lying on his shoulders.

"Hey Newt?" He hummed, the blond glancing up from where he was pressing a cold towel over Zart's forehead. The man had been asleep for a few hours now, and Newt had taken t upon himself to look over him.

"Hm?"

"Could I talk to you for a moment, outside?" Gally asked, the blond frowning.

"Why do we have to go outside? No one's in here." Gally opened and closed his mouth for a while, swallowing.

"Yeah- but, Zart might wake up. And it's more likely that we won't be interrupted if we're outside." He shrugged, the blond cocking his head to the side.

"Is everything ok?" He frowned. Gally froze up, clearly not having thought this through.

"I have a whopping crush on you." he blurted. Thomas winced, deep respect founding for his friend, who threw himself under the bus for their cause. A saint.

"O-oh." Newt blinked at him. "Well- sure. Let's go outside and talk about this." he smiled, a little awkwardly, before leaving the room. Gally closed his eyes for a moment in despair, before following. Thomas and the others immediately crawled into the room, the brunette grabbing Newt's phone.

"Ok, ideas?" He asked. Minho hummed.

"1234?" Thomas rolled his eyes.

"I'm not trying that. We have a limited amount of tries."

"6352?" Brenda suggested, the brunette raising an eyebrow. "It's the second most common password." She shrugged. Thomas typed it in, but to no avail. He chewed on his lip for a moment, before typing in 0370 hesitantly. The phone unlocked with a click, and he made a mental note to pat himself on the back later.

"How the hell did you guess that?" Teresa stared at him incredulously, and he shrugged.

"3.7 centremetres, just with zeros." he explained, tapping on contacts. He found Sonya's name and tapped call. It rang a few times, before she picked up.

 _"Newt I told you to only call in emergencies."_ She muttered, Thomas putting it on speaker.

"Sonya, it's Thomas."

" _Wha- is my brother ok?"_ She immediately demanded.

He's just fine. I just need you to do something for me." He asked, the girl humming.

_"What is it?"_

"I'm gonna tell you my number. And when I text you, you have to call Newt and tell him to come to you. Tell him it's a family emergency. This could happen at any time so I need you to be prepared." he explained.

 _"Why? What's this about?"_ The skepticism was clear in her tone.

"Well, we believe Newt might be in danger. And he will definitely throw himself into it, and so we need you to get him away from us when we tell you too. It's for his safety." He hummed, the woman huffing in thought.

 _"Ok. What's your number?"_ Thomas read out his number too her, before thanking her profusely an hanging up. He put back the phone where he found it, and Minho stood up from where they were hidden behind the table to leave. That was when Newt walked in, and the Korean was tugged back down. They were stuck. Luckily for them, Gally noticed.

"Uh- Newt!" The man spun the blond around and crashed his lips into the others. Teresa and Brenda shot up, crawling out of the room at speed. Thomas glowered daggers into Gally's soul, who opened his eyes in an apology glance. Minho grabbed the brunette by the arm and tugged him from the room as Newt pulled away.

"I- I'm really sorry Gally, but I already said-"

"I know," Gally nodded. "Sorry. I won't do that again." he offered, before scurrying from the room after the others. Newt watched him go, dumbstruck by what in the hell just happened.

"Did you do it?" Gally asked breathlessly, Thomas nodding shortly.

"Nice thinking on your feet there Gal'. I think he totally bought the crush thing." Brenda squeezed his shoulder, before sauntering off, mission accomplished. Thomas exchanged another glance with Gally, the same apologetic look present. The brunette just shook his head, silently letting him know that he got it.

-

"So Zart," Minho asked, next time the man was upright. "Are you planning on throwing yourself back into the battle?" He asked. Zart looked apprehensive, swallowing tightly.

"No actually." he admitted. "I just want to go somewhere safe." Minho raised an eyebrow, so he quickly added, "I want to stop him, of course! It's just- well I've lost everyone. And I'm no where near strong enough. I'd just be more of a hinderance." he shrugged.

"We understand." Newt reassured him, squeezing his foot lightly. 

"I know it's not helpful. I haven't been very helpful." Zart sighed, the blond humming.

"That's not true. You've got us lots of information. Without you, we'd have no way of knowing Janson was even coming, let alone how powerful he is." He explained, Teresa nodding.

"He's right." She hummed.

"I'd be more of a help if I could actually fight though." Zart rebuked, Teresa immediately shooting back, 

"You're grieving. It would be wrong of us to make you fight when you've just lost your group. I can't imagine what that must feel like."

"Awful," he admitted quietly. "I miss them."

"I just don't understand," Newt murmured, turning to the brunette. A small part of Thomas missed talking to Newt one on one, even though it had only been a few hours. Despite his reasoning, and Newt's reaction too, Thomas' possessive streak had fired up after that had happened with Gally, and Thomas didn't like the feeling, "Tommy, you said when they take their powers they're not killed for the most part."

"And you're right," Zart continued. "He kills for fun. He's a sadistic fuck. Wanted to watch my friends beg for their lives." he practically spat the fact, Newt only sighing.

"He's awful," He murmured, his new friend nodding. 

"You all seem like a good bunch of people though. Strong people. I'm sure you can take him down. I'm sure." He pushed, smiling warmly. "And you've been so hospitable. I have to thank you somehow." he huffed at the thought. 

"You've thanked us enough with your information." Teresa reassured. "We'll take him down, for you. Make it safe to come out of hiding." Zart offered a small smile.

"Thank you. You're good people."

"Well, we try."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is a short one- I've been so tired since school started whoops. I promise the next few chapters will be longer. Thanks for your support as always


	19. Nineteen

"Are we close?" Brenda asked, Zart leaning forward from the back seat.

"Yeah, just there." he pointed toward the edge of a forest, the woman turning back and raising an eyebrow incredulously.

"That's your town? Mate, that's the forest. Are you sure you're alright?" He just rolled his eyes, huffing.

"I know that. I want to go through the forest." he explained.

"Why would you want that?" Thomas frowned, the man sitting back slightly.

"I just don't want to go back through the front door, y'know? On the off chance he's waiting for me." he shrugged meekly, the brunette raising an eyebrow.

"Ok, but didn't he murder all you friends in a forest? It doesn't seem like a smart idea to go back through it." he countered, Zart shrugging.

"Well, I can hide. I'm good at that. I'll be alright." he assured, the brunette humming with suspicion.

"Sure?"

"Sure." he smiled,  Jorge turning into the lip of the forest. He shut off the engine, the five of them climbing out. Teresa and Newt had stayed back at the house to clean up, volunteering after the predicament of lack of car spaces.

"So this is it." Thomas asked, leaning against the hood as Zart peered into the woods, before turning to the group.

"I guess so." he shrugged, smiling at the group. "Thank you all so much, again."

"It's alright." Minho shrugged. "We gotta look out for each other, y'know?"

"Still," the man shrugged, pocketing his hands, "It's nice to know there are still good people out there." he laughed softly. Thomas scoffed, nodding.

"Well you've got our numbers, so if you ever need anything." He advised, Zart nodding back at him.

"Well it's two way. You ever need help, I'll be there. It's the least I can do."

"Thank you Zart." Brenda offered a smile, one that was returned as he turned back toward the forest.

"Stay safe out there." Gally advised, Jorge humming in agreement.

"I will." he advised. "See you around then." Zart shot one last, grateful smile over his shoulder, before disappearing into the thick forest. Thomas watched him go, humming. 

"I hope he's alright."

"You and me both." Jorge muttered, tearing his gaze away to get back into the car and start up the engine.

-

"It's been a long day, huh?" Minho hummed. Thomas scoffed, pocketing his hands. The two of them were stood outside of the house, staring out at the field that Zart had come from. The Korean fished a cigarette from his pocket, offering his friend one.

"You know you're gonna die." He nudged at his friend, Minho shrugging nonchalantly and pocketing the offered cigarette.

"I have like- one every week. And I'm gonna stop." he wiggled the cigarette between his fingers at Thomas, who rolled his eyes and cupped the end of it with one hand, snapping his fingers under it. The end lit up, and the Korean brought it to his lips.

"Thanks."

"You said you were gonna stop the last time." the brunette huffed. He wasn't going to sit there and tell his friend what to do with his life, but he would never pretend he was alright with Minho's bad habit.

"It's been a stressful day." The Korean justified, Thomas scoffing. "Everyone needs a bad habit. You gotta release stress somehow." he shrugged, leaning against the fence as he took a long drag.

"Well I'll make sure my bad habit won't give me lung cancer." he retorted, Minho scoffing.

"I got it." He motioned toward the brunette with his cigarette. "You can't get lung cancer by banging Newt." he advised, the brunette groaning.

"Are you still goin' on about that?"

"Yes! Because you were supposed to get in there, and then mysterious club guy turned up and took your man home! And Brenda told me Newt has a thing for him! Why aren't you mad about this?!"

"Because it's not my decision who Newt's interested in." he shot back, Minho squinting in suspicion as he breathed out.

"You seemed pretty mad when Gally kissed him." he hummed, Thomas just groaning.

"Slim it." Minho just laughed lightly, raising his eyebrows.

"You're sure you don't want one?" He asked, the brunette shooting him down with an incredulous glance. 

"I'm not turning to smoking, just cuz Newt doesn't want to bang me."

"I'd turn to cocaine if that piece of ass rejected me." Minho shrugged, Thomas smacking him round the head. "Kidding, kidding! Don't burn me alive."

"Watch yourself then." his friend huffed, pretending that it wasn't all in good fun.

"So what you think of this asshole guy Janson?" He asked, Thomas shrugging.

"I mean you pretty much summed it up. I think he's an asshole." Minho rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, no shit. I meant do you think we can beat his ass?" Thomas hummed for a moment, mulling over his options.

"Uh- yeah. I think we can."

"You don't think we're all gonna get murdered in horrible ways, leaving us awfully deformed and mutilated?" The Korean raised an eyebrow, Thomas shooting him a ' _what the fuck dude'_ look.

"That's some optimism.You think we're gonna get murdered in horrible ways, leaving us awfully deformed and mutilated?" Thomas frowned, Minho shrugging lightly.

"Well apparently I'm dying of lung cancer anyway, getting brutally murdered seems like the better way to go." he shrugged, his friend groaning.

"You know it's bad for you, why don't you stop?"

"That's a dumb question Thomas. It's not that easy, you and I both know that." 

"What if I just burnt up all your smokes?" Thomas asked, "Right now?"

"I would kill you." His friends' hand went to his back pocket defensively, Thomas huffing out through his nostrils.

"You have a problem."

"I do not."

"You just threatened to kill me!" He rebuked, Minho opening his mouth to defend himself.

"Well- you- you have a problem too!" He shot back weakly. Thomas crossed his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow. They were both aware of how weak an argument that had been.

"Oh yeah? And what might that be?" He asked, cocking his head. The Korean opened and closed his mouth, trying, and failing, to think of something to turn the attention onto Thomas.

"Uh- well- your-"

"Mhm, keep digging yourself a hole." Thomas smirked back, his friend huffing.

"Well- um- you're problem is- uh-"

"Tommy!" Newt called from the doorway. "You ready to go home?" Thomas cursed inwardly, refusing to look back at Minho.

"Yeah. I'll be there in two minutes!" He called back, turning to the Korean, who, of course, looked smug.

"That's your problem, lover boy." Thomas just huffed, turning away.

"Slim it."

"Or what?" Minho challenged, the brunette beginning to walk away.

"Or you'll have to buy a damn lighter."

 


	20. Twenty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dude I can't believe I'm halfway through this pic already I am entirely quaked

Thomas and Newt collapsed onto their beds, the two of them staring at the ceiling for a few minutes. Thomas ran over the days events in his mind, trying to figure out what to say. After a while, Newt cleared his throat and broke the silence. 

"So," he hummed, "does that kind of thing happen a lot around here?" Thomas scoffed at the notion.

 _"No._ " He admitted, "I'm sorry." Newt rolled onto his side to face the brunette, raising an eyebrow.

"What for?"

"Well I get that it must have been kinda scary and stuff. There was a lot of scary stuff going on today." he explained, the blond rolling back onto his back, huffing through his nostrils.

"It was, but I think I'll be ok." He shrugged. "I mean, you think we can stop him, right?" He asked, Thomas humming.

"Yeah." He admitted. A small spark of guilt buried itself in the pit of the brunettes' stomach, but he managed to swallow it down. He did feel bad about keeping Newt away from the situation behind his back, but he knew it was the right thing to do. He'd never forgive himself if something happened to Newt, which made him feel slightly better about keeping him safe.

"Then I'm sure we'll be fine." The blond shrugged, yawning.

"You're tired." Thomas pointed out, the blond rolling his eyes.

"No shit sherlock."

"Watch yourself," the brunette threatened playfully, "You wanna come over here or not?" He asked. Newt hummed in thought, before getting up with a groan and clicks of his leg, coming to lie on Thomas' bed, his roommate frowning as he wrapped his arms around the blond. "Why don't you ask Brenda to fix that for you? It seems to cause you some shit." he hummed, the blond shrugging after a moment of thought.

"I dunno. It's annoying, but I've just got used to it. I wouldn't know what to do if it suddenly wasn't there anymore." 

"Well, would you like it to be gone?" Thomas asked, frowning at the concept that anyone would willingly have a defective limb. Newt furrowed his brow deeply for a while, before shrugging again lightly against Thomas' embrace.

"I don't know."

"I mean- It's not like it brings up good memories, right?" Thomas raised an eyebrow, Newt making a face of acknowledgment.

"Well, just because they're not good memories doesn't mean they're memories I want to forget." the blond reasoned, Thomas humming in thought, "My real parents will never be Vince and Caroline, no matter how much I wish they were. My real parents are awful people, but they still made me who I am today. And- I don't think I should forget that part of my life, just because it was shitty. Sometimes the most important moments and people, who make you who you are, are real shit." 

"No offence Newt, but your intelligence is wasted with a Botany major. You should be a writer, or do philosophy or something." he murmured, the blond smiling warmly against the crook of his neck.

"Thank you Tommy."

"You should come do engineering with me." Thomas huffed, Newt laughed softly.

"Not quite how my brain works. I'd ask you to burn me alive three minutes in."

-

'Thomas!" Newt glowered at him, holding up an odd sock. Thomas raised an eyebrow from his phone.

"Yes?"

"Why are your dirty clothes, on the floor, _again?_ " He asked, crossing his arms over his chest. The brunette swung his legs over the side of the bed, sitting up and eyeing his roommate.

"Cuz they're on my side." He pointed to the clear divide between Newt's and his things on the floor, the blond huffing. He threw the sock onto Thomas' bed and pouted. Actually pouted.

"We share this room. And even though, they might be on your side, I don't want our room, stinking. Hygiene is important, on both sides." He muttered, pointing at the brunettes possessions, scattered about his side of the floor.

"Are you saying I smell?" Thomas asked, standing up and scooping a shirt off of the ground, acting as if it were the most strenuous task, and not worth any of his precious time. Newt rolled his eyes.

"I'm saying your dirty clothes smell after you've worn them, because that's how humans work. Now if you wouldn't mind, I'd prefer it if you picked them up before they stink the entire place out." he grumbled. Thomas huffed, picking his clothes off the floor like a stroppy child would.

"Sometimes I wish I would stink you out." The brunette shot back, Newt having the courtesy to look offended for a moment. 

"At least I would leave with grace, and not like a child having a tantrum." he shot back, Thomas glaring at him. Newt glowered back.

"At least I'm not a neat freak. I mean, really, 3.7cm? What's up with that?" He asked, stepping closer to gather his clothes up sulkily. 

"At least I have the decency to at least try to make our room look nice." Newt rebuked, the brunette throwing his clothes into the wastebasket next to the blond.

"At least I actually do more than spending my entire time making sure my room looks perfect." Thomas snapped, "I cook for you all the damn time!"

"Because I don't have time to cook!" The two had raised their voices, shouting at each other, despite only being about a foot apart. "I'm always picking up after-"

The line between shouting and making out, Newt pressed against the wall, wasn't exactly a clear one. Not that Thomas minded.

He pressed his tongue against the roof of Newt's mouth, hands running up and down his hips. Newt kissed back hungrily, hands scratching at Thomas' scalp and with a thigh hooked up around Thomas' hip.

"We shouldn't be doing this," The blond breathed against Thomas' lips, pressing back in anyway. Thomas placed his hands on the blonds' hips, turning them around and leading Newt back toward his bed.

"Too late now." He muttered back, helping the blond down onto the mattress, backward, before crawling on top, never once breaking the kiss. Newt's hand slipped down to Thomas' chest, continuing down until he reached the hem of the brunette's shirt, tugging in question. Thomas pressed his weight onto one hand, using his free one to take the blonds tugging palm, and interlocking their fingers. "Slow." He murmured against Newt's lips, as their hands came to rest on the pillow beside the blonds' head, who grumbled frustratedly.

"Why?"

"I'm making up for last time." The brunette explained, before pressing back in, more softly. Newt's free hand cupped the back of Thomas' neck, drawing him, impossibly closer. Thomas hummed in approval at the back of his throat, the blonds' nails carding up to his scalp. Thomas made a satisfied noise, Newt grinning against his lips, pleased with himself. Newt whined, Thomas rolling his closed eyes and humming in agreement. Newt's free hand went straight to Thomas' shirt,  tugging upward to reveal his stomach. 

"TOM IM COMING IN YOU HAVE THREE SECONDS TO NOT BE NAKED IF YOU ARE." Teresa made her usual announcement before coming into their dorm room. Newt's eyes widened and he shoved Thomas off of him, who landed on the floor with a  thump. The blond shot up, and he barely had time to whisper an apology to the hissing brunette, before the door swung open.

"Uh-" She frowned, taking in the sight of a flustered Newt, and a Thomas, sprawled out on the floor beside him. "Look, if you guys have some kinks that I was interrupting-"

"Wh- I- Teresa!"


	21. Twenty-one

"So, how are we supposed to find this Janson guy?" Newt asked. The six of them were spread out around their dorm room, Newt and Thomas sat on the brunettes bed, with Minho sat on the floor at their feet. Teresa and Gally were sprawled out on Newt's bed, Brenda lying out on the floor.

"We wait for Teresa to find him." Thomas hummed. Newt's feet were on his lap, and he traced his fingers up and down his sole slowly. Every now then Newt would twitch at the sensation, or bite down a giggle and smack his arm. But the brunette just grinned, waited for a moment and started again.

"But what if you don't sense him?" Newt theorised at the woman on his bed, who shrugged.

"I will. I've never not sensed one before." She shrugged, the blond frowning.

"Well- you wouldn't know that, since technically you don't know how many are out there. Therefore, you couldn't know if you missed one." He hummed, Teresa just rolling her eyes.

"Newt you're looking too much into this. It's fine, we'll find him."

"And what will we do when we find him?" The blond immediately asked.

"Beat his ass." Minho shrugged. Gally spoke up from the bed, he'd been frowning in deep thought for a while.

"What for though?" He asked, the Korean raising an eyebrow. 

"What do you mean? He's killed a ton of innocent people." Minho shrugged, his friend nodding.

"I know- I'm just saying- they aren't _our_ people." He murmured. Brenda sat up from where she was lying, watching Gally intently.

"Uh- yes they are." Minho frowned. "They have powers. We have to look out for each other."

"Gally actually, kinda has a point." Teresa chipped in, Minho staring at her incredulously.

"What? No he doesn't."

"Well, I mean- it's just, we know this guy is really strong, and really dangerous. And he hasn't actually killed anyone we care about yet. I mean- maybe this isn't our battle to fight." She shrugged.

"It kinda is T'." Thomas chipped in, "We can't just leave it to others. Any evil is ours fight."

"Well I just don't want us all to get hurt, over someone we have nothing to do with." She sighed, her sister nodding.

"If anyone should fight him it's Zart. He's the one who's life got destroyed. We shouldn't have to fight his battles for him." Thomas frowned deeply at his friend, unable to understand where there sudden shift in morality had come from.

"What happened to the greater good?" He asked with an incredulous stare, "What happened to protecting the innocent?"

"Well Zart's not innocent." Gally chipped in, "He has as much of a responsibility as the rest of us."

"Exactly." Minho shot back, "We all have a responsibility. A responsibility to do what Zart did. To stop Janson. Or to die trying."

"It might be smart to lay low a bit though." Teresa disagreed, "He doesn't know we exist, we get to stay alive. It's a win win."

"How is that a win win?" Minho had turned to glaring at the other occupants of the room, "It's not a win win for all of those innocent people he kills."

"He wouldn't get that far," Teresa shot back. "Zart and others would stop him." She tried to reason, the brunette shaking his head in agreement with Minho. It was a known fact that Thomas had a short fuse, but he did his best to control it most times. He couldn't be expected to control it though, when his friends, people he thought he was on the same page with, suddenly decided to go against that and decide their lives were worth more than millions of innocents.

"Zart already tried! And failed!" He reasoned, frustrated by their lack of empathy, "That's why they need us."

"This isn't our battle to fight." Brenda shrugged simply.

"Was Randall our battle to fight?" Thomas shot back immediately, Brenda nodding. "Why?"

"Because he was going to hurt innocent people if we didn't." 

"And you're telling me Janson isn't?"

"No Thomas," Gally sighed, "We're only saying that, maybe, we shouldn't put ourselves in harms way, when there are people, like Zart, who want to put their lives on the line to defeat Janson. Why waste seven lives when you could lose one and know him as a martyr?"

"Because Zart expects his people to fight with him. He doesn't want to fight him on his own, he expects for there to be a group of people, like him, who have got his back. That would put themselves in harms way for each other." Minho snapped back. 

"Minho, Thomas, you're being ridiculous." Teresa announced. Thomas loved Teresa, he really did, but he'd be lying if he said how much he despised her attitude when they argued. She could never admit defeat, and never admit that she was wrong. Not even if Thomas pulled up the facts on his phone. 

"No we're not! You're being heartless!" The brunette glowered at them. Brenda rolled her eyes.

"Newt, what do you think?" She asked, the Korean whipping around.

"Yeah Newt, what do you think?" The blond looked like a deer caught in the headlights, opening his mouth for a moment and staring at his friends.

"Uh- well- I don't really see the need to argue- I just-"

"Just answer the question Newt." Brenda grumbled. The blond watched his friends' faces one by one. Thomas frowned. This wasn't nice. Newt had only just gotten these friends, and was now being told to choose between them. So he ran a reassuring thumb up the sole of Newt's foot, through the sock, and the blond sighed.

"I'm with Tommy and Minho." he admitted.

"Thank you!" Minho whipped around. "You're being horrible!"

"We're being reasonable!" Teresa shot back. "And Newt was obviously going to be on Tom's side, we all know he sends his entire life sucking up to him!"

"Hey don't drag me into this!" Newt glowered defensively, "And I do not!"

"Oh cut the crap Samuels we all know you want to fuck him." She hissed. Newt glared at her, the hurt still obviously shining through his eyes.

"Don't be so horrible Teresa, Newt's done nothing wrong." Thomas grumbled, already incredibly done with the argument.

"You're no better!" She huffed. "All I ever hear is, _'Newt this' 'Newt that._ ' Surprise surprise Thomas, we don't all want to hear about your whopping big crush."

"Well Teresa, we don't want to hear your annoying voice but we put up with it." Minho shot.

"Hey!" Brenda immedialty jumped to her twins side, glaring at the Korean, "We have to put up with you being _you_ , all day!"

"At least I'm not as bad as you!" He grumbled.

"Can we stop please, this is so childish." Newt grumbled.

"Oh here we go, here comes mature Newt, who knows everything about everything, and want's the whole world to watch him constantly." Teresa snarked. 

"Well now you're just grasping at straws." He deadpanned, Gally groaning.

"Can we all just stop?"

"Oh slim it Gally, you don't get an opinion." Minho shot him down, the man raising his eyebrow.

"Why is that?"

"Cuz you're too dumb to have one you shank." He grumbled. Newt groaned again, swinging his legs off of the bed and marching to the door. He threw it open and pointed outside.

"Out."

"Excuse me?" Teresa glared at him incredulously.

"I said," He leaned down, pretending he was talking to a child, "Get, out, of my, home." Teresa huffed, standing, before helping Brenda up and ushering Gally to the door.

"Don't expect us to come around here again. You're wrong, and you're dickheads." She grumbled, slamming the door behind her. Newt groaned, flopping down back onto the brunette's bed.

"She gives me a headache."

"Tell me about it." Minho grumbled.

"So it's just us now?" Thomas raised an eyebrow.

"Guess so. At least until they realise that they're being pretty inhumane." He mumbled, Newt huffing.

"That's one word for it."


	22. Twenty-two

"I mean, I reckon as soon as you master invisibility it'll all click into place." Minho shrugged.

"What do you mean?" The blond frowned. The three of them were cramped into their dorm, not having access to Brenda's field anymore, since they were still arguing. That meant that their lessons had to revolve around things, less destructive, like Newt's invisibility.

"Well, usually, once someone learns the thing that is harder for them to master, they can do almost everything else pretty easily." The Korean explained, munching on crips on the  blonds' bed, who only huffed at the mess.

"Then- why have I been wasting time with all of the other things?" He asked.

"Well you can't learn the thing that is the hardest to learn, if you don't have some understanding of how to control it first, y'know? It's like a jigsaw, kinda. You build up the edges, then you put in a specific piece, and the other pieces suddenly seem a lot easier to put in." Thomas explained.

"That was an awful analogy." Newt stared at him incredulously, the brunette waving him off with an offended huff.

"But you get him, right?" Minho asked, the blond nodding.

"Yeah. I just think this might be kinda hard. I mean- imagining being invisible- I'm basically just imagining nothing, right?"

"Well, it's supposed to be hard." Thomas shrugged. "But don't imagine being invisible. Imagine turning invisible. Like, being there, and then disappearing."

"Ok." The blond nodded, closing his eyes. Thomas and Minho sat in silence, giving him space to think. They understood how frustrating it could be. They were in silence, for a while, before Newt sighed.

"Didn't last long." Minho commented, Thomas shooting him a glower across the room.

"It gives me a proper headache." Newt huffed, flopping down onto the bed to give himself a rest bite. "Like- a headache Brenda could fix." Thomas just hummed, the blond glancing at him, "Do you fight like that a lot?"

"No," Thomas admitted, "I think it's just that the situation is stressful."

"But- we're in the right?" Newt frowned, Minho scoffing incredulously.

"Of course we are! They're going against everything we stand for, everything we were brought up to believe him."

"Why?" 

"Because they're scared." Thomas sighed, "We're all just scared. They're angry because they don't want to face what they have to do." 

"Well- technically they don't have to do it." The blond shrugged sheepishly, "They could just pretend it's not happening for forever."

"If Teresa get's a vision, she won't be able to keep away for very long. She told me it was like a constant itching, in her head. Says if we wait too long it gets unbearable. They'll come back to us."

"What if they go after him on their own? If she gets the vision and they don't tell us?" The blond theorised, Minho shaking him off.

"They're mad but they're not stupid."

"Oh good.' Newt hummed. "I wouldn't want anything to happen to them."

"None of us would," Thomas admitted, "Although I would be lying if I said I didn't want Teresa to get some comeuppance. She was being a massive bitch, especially to you Newt. I mean, you hadn't even done anything to provoke her."

"It's just cuz he's an easy target." Minho shrugged, Newt turning to him with a frown.

"Am I?"

"Is he?"

"Well, not easy," He backtracked slightly, choosing his words carefully, "You're just sweet. You want the best for everyone, and most of the time the nice ones, the ones who look like they wouldn't stand up for themselves, get picked on."

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not." Newt scoffed slightly, the Korean shrugging.

"A backhanded one, but one none the less."

"Oh thanks."

"Anytime sweetcheeks." Minho shrugged, Newt just cocking his head with a frown.

"Don't ask," Thomas groaned, "I think Minho has a thing for you." He murmured, the blond scoffed. 

"Thomas don't bend my words! All I said was that if that piece of ass rejected me, I might turn to cocaine." His friend shrugged, Newt throwing his head back in a laugh.

"Please don't."

"Can't promise anything cutiepie." Minho shrugged, Thomas pretending to gag.

"You make me sick to my stomach."

"Just cuz you know Newt would choose me over you." The Korean retorted with a  grin, Newt cackling at this point. Thomas' heart warmed to see Newt so happy, despite their situation.

"Boys, boys," He laughed, "No need to fight over little old me."

"Alright, get that smug look off your face. Actually just get rid of your face." Thomas waved him off, the blond standing up despite pouting at him.

"Are you saying you don't wanna look at my pretty face? Are you calling me ugly?"

"Yes. obviously, that is exactly what I think of you." Thomas threw an eye roll the blond's way, who just pretend to huff and close his eyes.

"Ok, I got this." He murmured to himself, Minho diverting is attention from where he was watching them intently and curiously. Newt shook the tension out of his body, trying for another half an hour before giving up again.

"It's not happening." He slumped onto the floor by Thomas' feet, who just ruffled his hair in reassurance.

"Well that's ok. We can try another day. How are the other thing's going?" He asked, Newt shrugging.

"Ok. I can walk on my force almost perfectly now, although I'm not sure if I can support anyone else on it yet. I can throw things too."

"Hard?"

"Mhm." Newt smiled, rather smugly, Minho jumping off of the bed.

"Let's see then." Newt frowned at him incredulously.

"In here? There's no space?"

"Well, controlling your powers means being able to use them in enclosed spaces too." Thomas shot him an impressive look, the man just winking. Newt stood up with a frown.

"Ok." He picked up one of the balls that Thomas had used earlier, walking to the back wall. He threw the ball up and flicked his wrist, the ball shooting across the room and hitting the back wall.

"Newt that was really good!" Thomas encouraged.

"Thank you." He smiled.

"Let's see you walk on it then." Minho pushed. Newt cleared his throat, waving his hand to create two small circles. He stood on them with confidence, creating a small bridge across the room. He walked across of it, casually, about two feet off of the floor. He jumped off at the end, Minho humming impressively.

"Ok, not bad."

"Not bad? That's so much progress Newt." Thomas encouraged.

"Suck up." His friend teased, the brunette sticking his tongue. Minho just stood up onto Newt's bed, jumping off as high as he could with a call. 'Newt catch me!" The blond whipped around.

"Minho!" He cried, waving out a large platform for his friend to land on.

"Hm" The Korean stood up on the new surface, about a foot off of the ground, testing the waters. He bounced up and down on it, clearly impressed when it carried his weight. Then he stepped off of it, ordering Newt to follow him. He walked around the room at a reasonable pace, Newt one step ahead of it as he supported Minho around the room, creating a bridge easily for him. When Minho was done, he stepped back onto solid ground and patted Newt on the shoulder. 

"That was great mate."

"Thank you." Newt huffed, clearly quite pleased with himself.

"That was really impressive," Thomas hummed, "Don't beat yourself down cuz you can't get the invisibility yet. You've come a hell of a lot of a long way, and we're very proud of you."

"Do you think I'll get it soon?" Newt asked, smiling proud around at his room, which he had managed to not trash, which he definitely would have done if he'd attempted what he'd just done a few months ago.

"Definitely."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof sorry for the short chapter, I'm getting sick :'( <333


	23. Twenty-three

"Day four." Minho announced as he came through the door, coffee in hand. 

"Yes ok I get it, I'm being slow." Newt grumbled. Thomas shot a glare at the Korean, who put his hands up in surrender.

"Newt you're not being slow. This is a milestone everyone goes through, it can take up to a year. If you get it in less than a week, my mind would be blown. So don't put so much pressure on yourself." The brunette advised, Newt offering him a small, grateful smile.

"Have we tried just making Newt embarrassed?" Minho asked.

"That doesn't sound like it would help with control." Thomas frowned, his friend waving him off as he sat himself on Thomas' desk, much to the brunettes offence.

"No I know. But what if Newt's way of controlling it- is just- thinking of something really, really embarrassing." 

"I can't think of anything really, really embarrassing." Newt admitted with a frown. Minho shot him a look of shock.

"Nothing? You never pissed yourself during Nativity? Walked out of the loos with toilet paper on your shoe?"

"Well-" Newt thought for a moment, "One time some people in high school taped gay to my back." he shrugged. Minho snapped his fingers at Newt.

"Perfect! Was that embarrassing?"

"Not really." Newt shrugged, "It was, but then I thought fuck it, got up onto a bench, told everyone I _was_ gay and that Jack Harringstock, one of the guys who put the sign on me, made out with me and if he didn't want me telling the whole school he should have checked himself first." He shrugged. Thomas sat back in applause.

"You really are an angel."

"Gods work." Minho agreed, before shaking him off, "but this is besides the point! Why aren't you embarrassed about anything!?" He huffed.

"What if we tried a memory that makes Newt flustered?" Thomas tried, the Korean humming.

"That's not a bad idea. Anything that gets you all flustered Newtie?" He asked, the blond sitting back.

"Nope."

"Then how come Teresa got it to work? What did she say to you?" Minho interrogated, the blond rolling his eyes.

"I don't see how that's any of your business."

"I'm tryna help!" Minho justified, Newt raising an eyebrow.

"Sure." 

"There's probably an easier way to go about this." Thomas intervened, chewing on his lip. He glanced up and down Newt, who was defeatedly picking at his nails. "Min', get out." The two of them glanced up.

"You what?" Minho asked, eyebrows raised.

"Lemme try?" He asked, the Korean huffing.

"Fine." He got up as if it were a trivial action, closing the door behind him with a feigned huff. Thomas pulled Newt up, the blond meeting his eyes.

"What did Teresa tell you?"

"She told me she knew I had a huge crush on you." Newt shrugged meekly, "I mean that's slightly rephrased."

"Rephrased from what?" The brunette raised an eyebrow, the blond huffing hesitantly.

"She said, ' _I know you really wanna go at it with Tom_.'" Thomas scrunched up his nose in disgust.

"Ew, what is that phrasing?"

"Exactly!"

"But-" Thomas crossed his arms over his chest, "It made you flustered. So why don't you think about that?"

"Cuz Teresa doesn't make me flustered, no matter what she says. Only reason it did was cuz it took me by surprise." He explained.

"No, Newt, that's not what I'm asking you to think about." Thomas tried again, the blond staring at him incredulously for a moment before his face cleared.

"O- oh." Newt disappeared, Thomas humming impressively.

"There you go."

"I don't know how to get back." Newt's voice came through in a huff.

"Think about the most disgusting person you've ever met." 

"Uh-" Newt hummed, "Jack Harringstock." he grumbled out, returning with a grimace.

"There you go!" Thomas grinned, "Ok ready?" Newt nodded, enthusiastic at their new breakthrough, "Think about us." Newt disappeared, "And now Jack Harringstock." Newt reappeared. "Newt!"

"Tommy!" The blond grinned, "I did it!"

"Yeah you did!" Thomas smiled, Minho opening the door with a  frown.

"What's all the yelling about?" He frowned. Newt bounded forward with a grin.

"Min', look." he offered, before disappearing. There was a moment of invisibility, before Newt reappeared. "I did it!"

"Holy shit." The Korean grinned, "If I'd've known it was that easy I would've left earlier." he laughed.

"So what do I do now?" Newt asked, Thomas humming.

"Well, now you should be able to do things pretty easily, without any issue." He picked up the ball from the floor, standing at the opposite wall. "So, let's try this. I'll throw this, and you split it into half." Newt looked at him worriedly, chewing on the inside of his cheek.

"I don't think I can do that. Besides, I wouldn't want to make a mess."

"Newtie, you got this." Minho reassured, standing well back all the same. Thomas counted down slowly, throwing the ball upward. Newt swallowed and flicked his hand, ball falling to the ground as two halves. Newt's eyes widened and he stared at his hands.

"Holy shit."

"Newt, you've done it." Thomas murmured, "You've cracked it."

"R-really?" The blond whispered, tearing his gaze away from his hands.

"Yeah man." Minho grinned, Newt cracking into a huge smile.

"I did it!" He rushed over to the other two, throwing himself into a group hug. "Thank you thank you thank you!" he pulled back before either could say anything, "I am so so grateful you'd give up your time for me."

"Of course Newtie, I'm glad we could be a help." Minho grinned, the blond sighing contentedly at his hands. He dropped them with a soft smile.

"Is it bad I kinda wanna tell the others?" He asked, Thomas shaking his head and pocketing his hands, proud smile still lingering on his face.

"No, I kinda wanna too."

-

"Is this a bad idea?" Newt asked, leaning forward into the front.

"Definitely." Thomas admitted from the passengers seat. Minho waved them off.

"Who cares? Jorge'll always welcome us, even if we have fallen out."

"Are you planning on patching up your differences?" The blond asked skeptically, Thomas huffing.

"Not unless they apologise for being in the wrong. What they said was borderline inhumane." 

"Yeah," Newt admitted, sitting back, "I just don't think that's a reason to stop talking to each other."

"We'll figure it out Newt, don't worry." Thomas waved him off, Newt huffing. The car drew up at the farms drive, the three of them jumping out. Minho led them to the entrance of the farmhouse, rapping on the door. They had been expecting Jorge, but who answered, was definitely not Jorge.

"Oh. Hello Teresa."


	24. Twenty-four

"Are you here to apologise?" Teresa asked, lips set in a thin line.

"Apologise?" Minho immediately scoffed, Newt elbowing him sharply. He wheezed slightly, huffing through his nostrils, "We're here to fix things." She glanced them up and down for a moment, before letting them in with a huff. She led them out the back, where Gally and Brenda were talking in the field. They turned to see who Teresa had in tow, Brenda glowering them down. Gally looked more reserved, shooting Newt a tiny smile which the blond was eager to return.

They drew up to Brenda and Gally, the woman crossing her arms over her chest as her twin crossed the space, joining her team in this argument.

"Can we help you?" Brenda asked sharply, snake tongue clearly a hereditary thing.

"We wanted to see if we could patch things up." Thomas explained, patience still remaining, unlike Minho's.

"How? You think one thing, and we think another. Our points of view aren't going to change anytime soon." Teresa shrugged.

"But you're wrong!" Minho snapped, Newt elbowing him again. He ignored it. "You're being inhumane! I don't understand how you can think like that?" He tried exasperatedly.

"It's not inhumane. It's just about self-preservation. Survival of the fittest." Teresa shrugged. Thomas gawked at her, disgust curling at his stomach.

"Teresa- what the fuck. You know what your role is in life. You know what you have to do, what you've always had to do. Protect the innocent. Protect your family, people you care about. You can't just back out and decide your life is more important than anyone else when a battle seems too daunting." he grumbled, Teresa glowering at him.

"I never wanted this! I never wanted to be the one who had to save the innocent. I never chose to be a martyr. I'm not deciding my life is more important. I'm deciding that I don't want to have to give my life up, when I'm so young. I don't want to die!"

"So you don't think we can do this?" Minho crossed his arms over his chest, "Is that it?"

"No! I don't!" She glared at the Korean, "He's killed hundreds by the sound of it. I don't just want to be another power he's added on to his very very long list. I'm a life, I deserve to live a full one."

"No one is going to get to live a full life if he gets stronger!" Thomas countered.

"He wants us to go to him. You heard Zart, he's waiting for the prey to come to him. We can be safe. We don't have to fall into his trap- Tom, you know we'd never win." She huffed.

"And you know that there is no point running from this. Once you get the urge, you won't be able to control it. This isn't something you can just ignore until it goes away."

"I can try." She huffed.

"And what happens when you do get the urge?" Minho challenged, "When you have to go after him, you get there and have no one behind you. That's not self-preservation. That's just cutting yourself off from connections and making you an easier target."

"She'd have me and Gally." Brenda piped up.

"No one to burn the insides of the machine." Minho counted on his fingers, "No one to fight him. _No Newt_. You wouldn't make it."

"Are you saying we're weak?" Teresa frowned.

"Yes! And we're weak without you! That's why we're a fucking team!" Thomas tried, exasperatedly. "Look, Teresa, I don't agree with your views, and you don't agree with mine. But at the end of the day, we need you and you need us."

"We don't need you for anything." Brenda shot back. "We're not fighting him." Thomas shot her a look.

"Are you really just gonna pretend it's not gonna happen? Teresa can't fight the urge forever. All that's gonna happen, is that you're gonna die as cowards, and with your friends hating you because you decided you were better off on your own." Teresa's resolve, softened slightly, and she frowned.

"Thomas is right." Newt murmured. "We're gonna fight him, we all are, at some point or another. We may as well go together instead of split. We won't get anything done that way. We'll just get picked off one by one."

"Exactly." Thomas nodded. Brenda turned to her twin, who had a contemplative frown at her brow.

"Were you planning on going after him?" She asked, quietly for some reason. Teresa sighed.

"I was hoping I wouldn't get the urge." Her sister admitted. "There would be no way for me to control it if I did."

"And what was your plan? Go after him with us?" She asked, Teresa nodding.

"I knew we wouldn't last long. That's why I was hoping it wouldn't happen." She sighed.

"Guys," Gally piped up, 'We need them. We won't have any chance of survival without them, like it or not."

"I don't like it." Brenda deadpanned with a huff.

"You wanna have a one in one-hundred chance of survival, or a one in ten chance?" He asked, the woman frowning.

"Neither of those sound appealing."

"Yeah, but the trick is," He sighed, "One sounds a lot more appealing than the other."

"Fine." Brenda huffed, glancing at her twin. "Ter', what do you think?"

"I think Gally's right. No matter how immature and annoying they are." She shot them a glare, Newt's iron strong gip on Minho's arm the only thing stopping him from going for Teresa.

"I'll show you imm-"

"Minho." Newt warned, shooting him a death glare. The Korean let out a loud huff, trying to send the signal to his opponents that if he had it his way, they'd be in trouble.

"Fine." Teresa sighed, sticking out a hand, "Agree to disagree?" Thomas stuck his hand out, shaking hers tightly.

"Agree to disagree."

-

"I missed you guys, I'm not gonna lie." Gally hummed, Newt scoffing.

"Missed you too."

"I wasn't sure how much longer I could listen to T and Bren' talking shit about you." he sighed, the blond shrugging.

"Oh well. Girls will be girls I guess." Thomas frowned at him, unsure how he felt about the sentiment, before turning his attention back to the conversation, that had progressed.

"So what did I miss?" Gally asked, the blond sneaking a glance at Thomas.

"Nothing really." They had decided to wait few days until telling the others that Newt had mastered his powers, just to settle back in and make sure they weren't going to go back at each others throats at any given moment.

Thomas was unsure of what to do. Newt had learnt his powers now, which he had not imagined would happen so soon. Part of him wanted to call of the deal they'd made with Sonya, as he had control over his powers, but at the same time, Newt still wasn't very experienced, and would probably get hurt.

"Literally nothing." Thomas added on, "We found out that not much get's Newt embarrassed or flustered." Gally frowned slightly.

"Well surely you managed to do it Thomas." Newt scoffed.

"Really Gally? I knew making jokes wasn't above Teresa and Minho, but you too?" He laughed, Thomas glancing at his friend, and then back at Newt. When they exchanged the look, Newt frowned. "..What is it? What have I missed?"

"Newt," Thomas huffed, "I told Gally about us." he explained. Newt looked taken aback for a minute, blinking in his words.

"O- oh. I thought we weren't gonna tell anyone?" He didn't look hurt per say, just disappointed. Maybe a little disheartened.

"I know, but he caught me in a lie." Thomas sighed, the blond turning to his friend. "I'm sorry."

"How much do you know?"

"I know Thomas is the guy you went home with. I know you're low-key dating, and I know why you're not high-key dating yet." Gally listed off, Newt humming.

"Right."

"Thomas knows about my crush on you." Gally added, Newt blinking at the both of them.

"Wo- wow, you tell each other a lot, huh? Do you just talk about me all the time?" He asked with a snigger.

"Actually yeah." Thomas admitted."We really don't talk about much else."

"I'm flattered." he laughed.

"Should be Newtie Cutie."


	25. Twenty-five

"You're telling me we have this whole house to ourselves?" Newt asked, Thomas grinning.

"That I am."

"Where are the others?" He frowned skeptically. 

"Brenda and Gally are at class, and Minho and Teresa have gone out for lunch together, Jorge's at work. Brenda gave us free reign over the house."

"The whole house?" The blond bit his lip.

"The whole house. For at least two hours." Newt's eyes glistened, "That means, we _could_ , have a little bit of fun." he suggested with a shrug.

"Race you there." The blond grinned, shooting up the stairs. Thomas took off after him, barrelling up the staircase and skidding into the spare bedroom. "Ha!" Newt grinned, waving controller 1 in his face. "I get the good one. Now you can't cheat."

"I do not cheat!" Thomas huffed, sitting down next to him and taking up controller 2. "I'm just naturally good at leaving your ass in the dirt." He shrugged, Newt scoffing as he put the mario kart disk into the wii. 

"Sure thing."

"Just you watch." Thomas huffed.

-

It turned out, Thomas was just naturally good at leaving Newt's ass in the dirt. The furthest Newt had come to winning, after forty-five minutes, was sixth place, which Thomas had, despite his competitiveness, praised the blond endlessly for. 

"Food?" Thomas asked, putting down his controller as he won another match. Newt huffed and nodded. "Come on. Jorge always has good food in his house." he reassured his roommate, who followed him down the stairs, stretching his leg out as he did so.

Newt opened up a cabinet, Thomas wrapping his arms around the blond and putting his head on his shoulder. The blond laughed softly, moving on to look around the cupboards. Thomas clung on.

"You're not making this very easy." he commented.

"You're warm, suck it up." Thomas murmured, watching as Newt pulled out two bags of chips. 

"Bloody hell, anyone would think we'd been married for thirty years." He scoffed, searching for drinks. Thomas just hummed next to his ear, nodding toward the refrigerator. Newt pulled out two drinks. "Get off and help me." he whined, Thomas abandoning his hot water bottle with a huff. Newt just laughed softly, grabbing the chips and making his way back up the stairs. Thomas trailed back up after him, sodas in hand.

They stopped for a snack break, Newt humming as he ate his food. 

"So, am I really all done with controlling my powers now?" He asked, Thomas humming.

"Yeah actually. You should be. All ready to fight." He laughed a little hesitantly. 

"Bloody hell, sound enthusiastic about that why don't you?" He scoffed.

"Sorry." Thomas sighed slightly, "You know what I'm like. I just want you to be safe." he admitted, the blond cocking his head slightly.

"Why? I'm not your responsibility."

"I know," Thomas hummed, "But I lo- I y'know, I care about you." If Newt caught his slip of the tongue, he certainly didn't let it show.

"That's fair." he sighed, "I want you to be safe too."

"It's quite hard, all things considered." The brunette scoffed, Newt laughing as he finished his chips. 

"I think we live a perfectly safe lives." He scoffed, picking up his controller again. Thomas finished his own food and picked up his own, watching as Newt chose one of the easier tracks- the one he'd come sixth on. Thomas smiled fondly, readying at the start of the race.

As soon as the race started, Thomas was off. Newt took about a second longer to get going, but he still managed it.

"If you win one more time I might actually cry." Newt murmured through his concentrated brow. Thomas just laughed, staying on track steadily. Newt was at the back, seemingly getting bullied by the other cars, which Thomas could only guess was the reason behind his roommates incessant swearing.  When Thomas was about to lap Newt, he decided to take mercy on him, deciding against releasing his mushroom, and leaving the blond alone. "Thank you." Newt barely murmured, concentrating hard.

"S'ok." Thomas hummed. The race went on, and Thomas won again, the brunette groaning. 

"I'm gonna throw this." He announced, Thomas grabbing the controller before the blond could do any serious damage. He leaned backward, stretching his arm away from Newt. He whined and tried to reach over Thomas to the controller, just really ending up on top of him. "'Gimme!"

"You're not throwing it." He laughed, the blond glowering at him. His expression softened as his eyes flicked over Thomas' lips, which the brunette wet nervously. 

"Sorry." Newt breathed, "I'm very close to you."

"It's ok," Thomas tried to lighten up when the blond made no indication of moving away. "We've been closer." The blond breathed a laugh.

"We have. Should I move away?" Newt asked.

"Do you want to move away?"

"Not really." 

"Then stay here." The brunette murmured. Thomas put the controllers down on the bed, taking the blonds hips and hiking him up to eye level. Newt's legs wrapped tighter and the blond sat up, only then realising that he was straddling Thomas. 

"Well that escalated quickly."

"Newt," He murmured, hands not leaving the blonds hips, "Soon. Not long now."

"I don't want to pry," Newt murmured, running a hand absently up Thomas' chest. "You don't have to tell me- I mean you don't have to even know- but, have you any idea how close you are?"

"I just need a little longer. Maybe a week-or two?" He suggested.

"That's specific. Don't feel pressured to sort yourself out in such a short space of time." he advised, Thomas smiling.

"I won't."

"Good."

"Maybe you should get off before the others get back." The brunette suggested reluctantly, The blond scoffing in dismissal. 

"We have ages. Besides, I quite like the view from up here." He grinned, the brunette rolling his eyes with a  groan. 

"You're insufferable."

"You're into me."

"What was I thinking?" He teased, Newt laughing.

"I ask myself that every day." Thomas smacked at his hip lightly.

"No! You're an angel!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry the new chapters late. I am working on it but I was just too tired to finish it tonight, Hope you understand, much love <33


	26. Twenty-six

"TOM IM COMING IN YOU HAVE THREE-" Thomas threw open the door and clamped a hand over the startled woman mouth.

"Newt's sleeping." He hissed, Teresa huffing and moving away from his hand.

"Alright lover boy. I won't wake your sleeping beauty, can I come in?"  She asked, the brunette letting her in, still, with a huff.

"If you must." Teresa smiled sweetly at him, trotting in and sitting down on Newt's bed. Newt was curled up on Thomas' bed, and Thomas grabbed a blanket, throwing it over his form and sitting next to his friend on Newt's bed, who frowned.

"Why is Newt sleeping on your bed?"

"I was studying, we were chatting. He sits on my bed when I'm at my desk because it's closer. And he fell asleep." he lied. Well, not really. Newt did spend most of his time on Thomas' bed when the brunette was studying, but in reality, Newt had come back from work, whinging about how much of a headache he had. And Thomas had babied him, giving him pills and turning off all the blaring lights, only lighting a few unscented candles, and cuddling his roommate in the dark until he'd fallen asleep.

"Right." Teresa hummed, apparently deciding that was a valid enough reason.

"So what's up?" He asked, the woman shrugging.

"Nothing, I just wanted to see you. Is that not allowed?" She half teased, the brunette rolling his eyes.

"Yes, it is. Obviously." He huffed. 

"So how are things?" Teresa asked, eyes resting on Newt.

"Ok," Thomas hummed, "I'm almost up to date with all my homework and-"

"Tom." She scoffed slightly, "I meant with Newt." The brunette only rolled his eyes.

"Things are going normally, as friends. That's all we are T, why can't you just accept that." The woman huffed sulkily.

"Because I know theres something else there. Or there wants to be." Thomas was the most worried about Teresa finding out about their secret, since for all he knew she could only touch him and know everything he and Newt had been hiding. Of course, he knew Teresa would never do that. At least, not when she wasn't mad. Thomas swiftly moved the conversation on.

"So how are you feeling about everything recently?" Teresa shot him a look.

"You know how I feel about it."

"I know where you stand on the matter." He corrected. "I don't know how you're feeling." 

"Well I think it's fairly obvious I'm shatting myself." She scoffed, Thomas chuckling.

"We'll be ok." He reassured lightly, placing a hand on her knee. The woman frowned.

"How? How can you say that and be so optimistic? You saw what he did to Zart's group. How do you know we won't end up like them?" Thomas just hummed.

"Because I know we're good. We're amazing at what we do. We've never lost and I don't think any of us intend to now."

"And what if we don't die, but it drifts us apart?" She asked, Thomas frowning.

"What? Why would it?" 

"Well, I thought traumatic experiences push people apart." Thomas' frown deepened.

"I read that it brings people closer. That's why people have trauma sex."

"What if we all end up having an orgy and then never speak to each other again then?" She hissed, Thomas glowering at her incredulously.

"Ew! I don't want to have sex with any of you!" Teresa guffawed, sitting back with a huff.

"That's not what you said when we fucked."

"Not what I said when Brenda and I fucked either." He shot down Teresa's attempt to make herself feel different.

"Bet it's not what you say to Newt every night." She scoffed, earring a smack to the arm. Then her expression softened slightly, "But really Thomas? What if it does drag us apart, if we survive?" Thomas' hand squeezed at her knee reassuringly. 

"It won't. It has no reason too. When we survive and beat him, the only thing that will have changed is that we'll be more accomplished. We'll all know at the end of the day, like the end of every day, that we've got each others backs." Teresa frowned down at his hand on her knee, nodding slowly.

"And we won't have a massive trauma orgy?"

"We will not. And if you do, you can count me out." She laughed lightly.

"Why? You're the only one that swings both ways."

"Doesn't mean I swing both ways for my friends." He grumbled back. 

"No. We all know you swing hard for Newt." She teased, the brunette shrugging nonchalantly.

"Yeah but he doesn't have to know." 

"I think he has a major thing for you." The woman shrugged, "I know you're telling everyone he has a thing for club boy, but he's making some serious heart eyes at you everyday. I just think he has a whopper." Thomas bit the inside of his cheek to hide the smile at the prospect of Teresa catching Newt gazing at him, _every day._

"T, you're reading too much into this. I've met club boy, I think he's great for Newt." He shrugged, the woman's eyes widening.

"You've met him?! And you didn't punch him?!" Thomas stared at her incredulously.

"No I didn't punch him, why would I do that?!"

"Because you're the most jealous person I know!" She sat back and narrowed her eyes at him. "Something doesn't add up here." Thomas swallowed dryly, waving her off.

"T, seriously." He thought for a moment, wondering how he could change the subject, "Newt figured out his powers." Her eyes widened again and she leaned forward, glancing at Newt with her surprise.

"Really?! When? Why didn't I know about this?!"

"It happened when we were mad at you," Thomas explained, smiling fondly at the blonds sleeping form as he subconsciously drew the blankets closer to his chin. "We were gonna wait and show you after we knew our friendship had been amended." 

"How did he take it?"

'What do you mean?" Thomas' gaze fell from his roommate and back to his friend.

"I mean- is he happy?" She asked, the brunette nodding.

"Of course. I don't know how to feel though." He admitted, Teresa frowning.

"Why not? Aren't you happy?" 

"Well yeah." He nodded, shrugging meekly, "I just don't know wether we should call off the deal with Sonya. He still doesn't really know what he's doing, and the last thing I want is for him to get hurt."

"Good point." The woman frowned in thought for a moment, cocking her head slightly toward the blond, "I think we should be on the safe side. Especially if Janson's involved." The brunette nodded, running a hand wearily over his face.

"I just think he's gonna be really mad when he finds out." Teresa shot him a look.

" _If_ he finds out." She corrected.

"Newt's not dumb." He sent her a look, the woman putting her hands up in surrender.

"And I'm not saying he is. I'm just saying, the only way he'd find out if is Sonya slipped up. And she won't. She seemed pretty down when she found out it was to protect her brother. I think she's gonna make sure he can't find out."

"What if he does? He might hate us." Thomas voiced his inner monologue without fear, knowing Teresa would never judge him for it.

"Newt is really not the hating type Tom." She reassured him, patting at his knee. "He'll understand. We only want to keep him safe."

"And he only wants to help." The brunette rebuked. She squeezed his palm.

"He won't find out."

"Whatever you say."


	27. Twenty-seven

"So, big news," Thomas cleared his throat, his friends glancing up. "As some of you know, Newt has figured out his powers." He announced. Brenda and Gally's eyes widened.

"Really?" She blinked, the blond nodding with a smile. Brenda squealed, running at him and squeezing him tightly. Newt looked taken aback, before smiling and returning the hug. "I'm so proud of you Newtie!" She grinned, moving backward for Gally to give the blond a slightly awkward bro hug.

"Well done Newt."

"Thank you." The blond smiled back.

"Can we see what you can do?" Brenda asked, pocketing her hands.

"A- all of it?" The blond queried, earning a nod. He swallowed tightly, Thomas squeezing his shoulder.

"Don't worry, you got this." He reassured softly, his roommate giving him a tiny, grateful smile.

"Ok, what do you wanna see first?" He asked, Teresa piping up.

"Invisibility?" Newt nodded, rolling his shoulders back in preparation. He closed his eyes and disappeared. Completely, no clothes on show, just like he had completely disappeared from existence. Thomas beamed with pride, Brenda, Gally and Teresa cheering and yelping about how cool it was. Minho grinned excitably, laughing when Newt reappeared beside him. 

"Did I do ok?" He asked, his friend nodding encouragingly.

"Totally." He reassured.

"What else can you do?" Brenda pushed, the blond humming for a moment. He waved his hand toward the ground, creating a force that he stepped up onto with ease. He broke into a run, trusting himself to make the next step as he scaled upward. Thomas watched, swallowing. He trusted Newt completely, and was safe with the knowledge that the blond knew his own limits, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't scared for his roommate as he made his way upward. When the blond was about ten metres, he stopped and waved down at his friends.

"Newt this is amazing!" Teresa called upward, the blond offering her a thumbs up, before jumping off. Thomas knew he and others were yelling around him, before Newt caught himself with ease a few meters down. He continued to jump and land on his own force, until he slid off of one onto the ground.

"Newt, I'm proud of you and all but can you give us some warning before you give us a heart attack?" Thomas huffed, Newt rubbing at his neck sheepishly.

"I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Show them what else you can do." He offered with a reassuring smile that he wasn't mad, Newt turning his attention back to the others.

"What else do you want to see?"

"Show them the things with the ball, Newt." Minho advised, the blond humming.

"But I don't have one with me." Thomas frowned, rooting around in his pockets for a minute. He produced a small ball, Newt raising an eyebrow in confusion as the brunette held it up. 

"I thought you might need it!" He reasoned, Newt shrugging and trotting a few metres away.

"Step back a little." Thomas advised, catching Teresa's worried glance, 'Just to make sure." He added, in an attempt to quell her worries. "Ready?" He redirected his attention back to Newt, who nodded. The brunette counted down, throwing the ball up and moving swiftly out of the way. Newt blew the ball backward with ease, Gally humming impressively.

"That's pretty good Newt." He praised, Thomas trotting over to collect the ball as Newt thanked him. Thomas counted down once more as he returned to his original spot, throwing the ball up once more. Newt waved his hands, the ball slicing clean down the middle and falling to the floor. Teresa's eyes widened, and she glanced toward the blond.

"Well, that's not terrifying or anything."

"It would be if we weren't on the same side." Brenda corrected, grinning at the pleased blond. "Anything else Newt?"

"Uh- I could carry you? Like, if you wanted to go over anyone I could get you there." Minho hummed at that, arms crossed over his chest.

"Ok Newt let's try something. You get me over Thomas, as he shoots at me." The blond frowned deeply at the Korean's suggestion, the brunette shrugging in agreement,

"That's not very safe." The blond commented, his friend nodding toward Brenda.

"It'll be ok, we have Bren'." He smiled, trying his best to reassure Newt. The idea that they actually did training which could be dangerous was still a new one to Newt, and clearly one he wasn't completely on board with yet. 

"Ok." The blond agreed begrudgingly, Minho taking his position a few metres from Thomas.

"Great." He grinned, "Go!" Minho ran at Thomas, who threw a fireball his way almost immediately. Minho jumped, Newt catching him on a force, the fire passing underneath him and driving itself into the soil. Thomas wasted no time in throwing another one upward, the Korean jumping again. Newt caught him again, swallowing tightly, clearly nervous. The next time the Korean jumped, Newt wasn't quite ready, and whilst he did catch him, Thomas was fairly sure he'd burnt Minho's heel. He hit the floor with a thump, still, alive and on his feet.

Newt winced when he missed, rushing forward and apologising profusely when Minho grimaced in pain.

"Newt it's ok, really. It doesn't hurt too bad. And you did really well! For a first time, that was great." He reassured. Brenda placed a reassuring hand on Newt's back, pushing her other against the Korean's heel and closing her eyes. Minho smiled when she drew away, nodding at her good work.

"Thanks Bren'."

"Don't you think we've put Newt under enough pressure for one day?" Se laughed, half seriously as Minho shrugged.

"You ok Newt?" He asked, the blond blinking.

"Uh- yeah!" Brenda waved him off.

"He just says what you want to here because you scare him."

"I do not!" Minho rebuked, turning to the blond, "Newt do I scare you?" The blond, once again, looked like a deer trapped in the headlights, opening his mouth.

"Uh-" Thomas put a hand on each shoulder and steered him away, back toward the house for a break.

"Ok and thats when we leave." He heard Minho huff behind him and the brunette stifled a laugh, Newt complying and trotting bak toward the home.

-

"Guess who?" Thomas laughed, covering Newt's eyes. The blond was sat on a stool at the bar of the cafe he worked at, on his break. The blond scoffed, humming.

"Troy! Babe I missed you." Thomas immediately swivelled the blond around in the stool, frowning deeply.

"Hang on a minute, who's this Troy?" Newt only laughed at him, turning back to his coffee as the brunette slid into the stool next to him.

"You get jealous so easily." He commented, the brunette rolling his eyes and deciding to change the subject.

"What are you doing? Why are you just sat here?" He asked, ordering a black coffee from the woman behind the counter. He recognised her as Stephanie, someone Newt hadn't taken kindly to, as she seemed to want to get into his pants. Thomas was definitely going to take the opportunity to let her know that Newt wasn't available.

"I'm thinking." Newt frowned, the brunette raising an eyebrow.

"..about?"

"About Janson." The blond shrugged, sipping at his drink, "It's been almost a month since we met Zart, and he said Janson was close. And yet he's still not here. So, where the hell is he? Did he go the opposite direction? Will we ever have to worry about him?" He shot off, Thomas quelling his mind with a hand on his. 

"There's no point overthinking it Angel- thank you," he paused to pay and receive his drink, not missing the scowl that crossed Stephanie's features at the pet name, "He's either gonna come, or he's not. You can't spend your whole life worrying about these things."

"I know, but I do." The blond shrugged.

"I know you do." He turned back to Stephanie, "Could I have six chocolate cookies please?" Newt choked.

"Tommy! What the bloody hell for?"

"You need to think about something else, so I'm gonna pump you full of sugar." Newt only scoffed.

"You're mad."


	28. Twenty-eight

"Y'know," Thomas put down his book, the blond glancing at him, "We should go somewhere. As a couple." Newt looked taken aback for a moment at his sudden leap, sitting up.

"As- a couple?" He repeated. 

'If that's ok with you." Thomas shrugged, the blond nodding vigorously.

"Where? When?"

"Let's go right now." The brunette shrugged again, mulling over possible date ideas, "We could go ice-skating." Newt frowned.

"Are you any good at ice-skating?" The blond asked, Thomas shrugging.

"I'm sure it's not that hard. Don't worry, I'll hold your hand if you're worried."

"Oh, thank you."

-

"Careful Tommy." The blond scoffed, grabbing ahold of the brunette's hand as his roommate almost toppled over, for a third time. Thomas steadied himself, the blond placing guiding hands on his shoulders. "Don't worry, I've got you."

"How do you know how to do this?" The brunette grumbled, staring at his feet in an attempt to keep on his feet. Newt only shrugged, gliding backward as he led Thomas around the rink.

"There's lots you don't know about me."

"Any particular reason you're hiding being incredibly amazing at ice-skating?" He asked, the blond only shrugging.

"I'm not hiding it. You never asked." Newt led him slowly, the brunette trusting him enough to stop his flailing and rest his hands on the blonds hips.

"I don't think I should be on here." Thomas decided, "I might melt it." Newt only scoffed, spinning them around slowly, the brunette smiling warmly despite himself. 

"You'll be fine, I won't let you fall."

"What can you do anyway? Could you do a  jump?" The brunette asked, the blond only humming and putting his head on his roommates shoulder, taking advantage of the allowed public affection. 

"I could, but I don't want too."

"Why not?" Thomas frowned as Newt turned them with his heel.

"I'd rather spend the time with you." The blond explained, Thomas humming in acknowledgement.

"Fair enough." Thomas glanced around for anyone they knew, despite himself and what he'd told Newt was ok, but he just didn't want to deal with an interrogation from Teresa and the others. "So how are you finding your new pow-"

"Shhh." Newt pressed a finger to his lips, his roommate blinking in shock as the blond retracted the finger and rested his hand back on the brunette's shoulder. "Can we not talk about powers today, please?" He glanced up at Thomas with his best pleading eyes, his roommate only frowning.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want every conversation we have to be about that. I want it to be about us. I want it to be about how much I love you." 

Thomas had not been expecting that.

Which was proven when he tripped over his own feet and landed face first into the ice.

-

"Sorry," Newt murmured, pressing the pack of ice tighter to his forehead. 

"It's ok," Thomas reassured, "It's not that cold."

"No, I mean I'm sorry that I made you trip. I wasn't thinking, and I should've been. I mean obviously that would make you uncomfortable, I don't- I don't know what I was thinking. I'm really sorry." he murmured, eyes trained on the small bruise just below Thomas' hairline. Thomas only smiled and squeezed his knee.

"Don't be silly Newt. I thought it was sweet, and you have a right to be honest with me about that kind of thing."

"I probably shouldn't have done it when you were on ice skates though." He scoffed, Thomas laughing.

"No, maybe not."

-

"I'd choose the warm over the cold any day." Newt announced, hands clamped around his mug of hot tea. Thomas took a sip from his coffee, cocking his head.

'Is that why you like me?" Newt only rolled his eyes across the table.

"No, your powers have nothing to do with it." Thomas frowned.

"Then- why?" The blond stared at him incredulously for a moment, as if he couldn't believe Thomas was actually asking him that.

"Tommy, your powers don't define who you are as a person. I like you because you're kind, and patient, and smart, and funny, and gorgeous. And I like you because you have a big heart and you never gave up on me and you have cute little dimples and you always beat me at mario kart, and even though you were off your face drunk, when I told you I'd never done anything like that before you kissed me and told me that you were gonna take care of me. I'm not ever gonna find anyone like you again. The fact that you have powers is just a bonus." Thomas' face was on fire, and he was opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish.

"O-oh."

"Sorry that was weird." Newt immediately back peddled, shrinking into himself. Thomas only lightly smacked him on the arm.

"Will you stop apologising for being adorable, we're on a date you're allowed to say those things."

-

"I'm tired." Newt announced, throwing down a text book.

"Come here." Thomas put down his book from his bed and opened his arms, Newt happily trotting over and flopping in between the brunettes legs, arms encasing around him. Newt rested his head on Thomas' chest and sighed contentedly.

"Today was really nice. Thank you."

"Thank you for being so sweet." The brunette retorted, Newt only humming and closing his eyes. Thomas ran his fingers through the blond mop lazily, Newt only purring at the feeling. The brunette smiled to himself, risking it and leaning forward slightly. He pressed a featherlight kiss to the crown of the blonds' head, and the only way Thomas knew he'd realised was the tiny upturn of the blonds' lips.

Eventually his breath evened out and Thomas closed his own eyes to get some sleep, arms tightly around the blond. That was when the door flew open with a bang. The two of them shot up, Newt jerking from sleep. Teresa was leaning on the doorway, shaking.

"We've got to go." She murmured, voice also quivering.

"What? Why?" Newt frowned.

"He's coming."


	29. Twenty-nine

Thomas dug out his phone whilst Newt was throwing on clothes. He scrambled out a message to Sonya, and prayed that she was awake. When Newt's phone went off a minute later, Thomas praised all of the lords he could think of. The blond glanced at it, frowning.

"Is it important?" The brunette asked, Newt typing out a quick message back.

"It's not." Thomas frowned deeply, swallowing nervously.

"Are you sure? I mean- it's got to be kinda important that it's a text so late." He offered, throwing a glance at Teresa, who was impatiently leaning on the doorframe.

"It's just my Dad, he's sick. I said I'd go see him in the morning, he'll be ok. He's got Sonya and Caroline." The blond shrugged off, leaving his dorm and Thomas, dumbstruck.

Well that plan had backfired.

-

When Newt jumped into the car with the others, Minho shot Thomas a questioning glance through the rear-view mirror, but the brunette only shrugged helplessly. Newt seemed not to notice the tension in the car at his presences' expense, instead choosing to lean forward.

"T, how long do you think it'll be?" He asked, Teresa running a hand through her hair.

"Uh- I'm thinking an hour." She explained, Minho starting up the car.

"Ok." He hummed, sitting back and texting his sister, who was apparently not very good at doing the one job she'd been tasked with. Thomas couldn't really blame her though, she had tried her best to make it an immediate family crisis, but not one to traumatise the blond. That balance was one that had clearly been hard to find, and one that clearly had not been reached.

Thomas set his head against the window, sighing deeply. Panic was bubbling at his stomach, but for some reason, he wasn't worried about himself. Part of him was saying that he should definitely be scared, he knew what this Janson guy was capable of, but he was more concerned about Newt. He didn't want anything to happen to the blond, and if anything did, the brunette wasn't sure he'd be able to forgive himself. 

He had apparently given the blond some sign of distress, because the blond took his hand and smiled softly at him. Thomas forced out a smile back, stomach sick with nerves. How they'd ended up in the situation where Newt, someone who had never gone into a fight, let alone anything like this before, was comforting Thomas, he had no idea. He was still thankful for the reassurance.

-

Teresa led them through woods, Thomas sticking as close to his friends as possible. She led them for a while, with no sign of anything out of the ordinary around. Toward the end of their trek, Thomas was more concerned by the kind of things that could be in the woods than Janson.

That was until Teresa stopped dead, clearing coming into view. There was, as always, a machine set up, and a man, waiting patiently beside it.

Janson was a fairly regular looking man. He was in his mid-forties, with greying hair and thin arms. He looked like nothing special, apart from the fact that he was alone, with a whirring machine, in the middle of the woods at night.

"Who might you be then?" He smiled when he noticed them. His thin lips and long face reminded Thomas of a rat. He didn't like it, one bit.

"My name is Teresa. These are my friends: Brenda, Gally, Thomas, Minho and Newt." She introduced. "You're Janson." She announced, the man perking up.

"You know me." He pointed out. "My messenger pigeon must have done a good job then." He hummed. Thomas frowned deeply in anger, huffing.

'Zart? The one who's friends you killed for no reason?" He snapped, the man only frowning.

"Well it wasn't personal. Just the business."

"No, you didn't have to kill them." The brunette shot back. "You could have at least given them a chance."

"Yeah, a chance to kill me." The man scoffed, "I'm only eliminating the threat. Isn't that what you do? Give us up to GOPOP. Ship us off somewhere where you don't have to worry about us, don't have to think about all the lives you've ruined." 

"Ruining lives is a lot better than ending them mercilessly."

"Well unfortunately, I intend to do more than ruin your lives." Janson sighed. He waved an arm, rock encasing his machine. Minho cracked his knuckles, Thomas taking a deep breath.

"Alright. Let's do this then." 

Minho ran at Janson immediately, successfully distracted as the others spaced out. Thomas whipped back to Newt.

"Newt, stay back unless we need you."

"What? Why?" The blond frowned, Janson bringing ice up from seemingly nowhere to fire at Minho.

"Newt, listen to me. He cannot know about your powers. I know now probably isn't the best time to tell you, but your powers, are a lot more powerful than most. If he knows you have them, he'll go after you, and if he gets your powers, it could be catastrophic. So just stay back." Newt stared at him, dumbstruck, before nodding slowly.

"O-ok." he murmured, stumbling backward to the edge of the clearing. Thomas whipped back around, only to see Minho get pinned to the ground by the ice, barely missing his torso. Thomas threw a fireball at the Korean, the ice melting away and allowing his friend to bolt away. Janson rose up off of the ground, throwing rock up from the ground and toward the brunette, who threw himself out of the way.

Gally had held his hands out a few seconds prior, metal flying at him. He pointed his hands toward the man, the metal parts shooting at him.  He waved his hands and formed a rock barrier, metal piercing or bouncing off of it. Thomas threw a fireball at him whilst he was off guard, Janson barely managing to throw water over it as he wavered in the sky. 

Teresa and Brenda were lurking around the sides helplessly. No one had gotten hurt yet, so Brenda wasn't needed, thank god, and Teresa was only trained in hand-to-hand combat, and Janson wasn't on the ground, and therefore out of her reach.

Gally called to the two other men.

"On three?" He called, Minho nodding and Thomas giving him a thumbs up. Gally counted down and threw the metal at him again, Thomas shooting a beam of fire at Janson. Minho ran at him, disorientating the man, as he managed to block off both assaults. A sharp piece of debris embedded itself into his side though, and he groaned in pain. Pulling out the rusty bar, Janson turned, eyes alive with fury.

Yelling in anger, he created his own burst of fire, throwing it at Gally. Minho was there before him, grabbing ahold of his friend and throwing the two of them out of the way. Janson growled, throwing another icicle toward them. Minho shoved Gally out of the way, the large icicle piercing through his arm. 

"Minho!" Thomas cried as the Korean howled in pain, knees giving out. Brenda ran toward him, grabbing ahold of his arm as Janson waved his hand at the two. Thomas threw him off with an attack to his side, shifting his attention as Brenda tugged out the icicle, his friend groaning in pain. Janson growled at Thomas, throwing an entourage of rock toward Minho and Brenda, and an enormous icicle at him.

The brunette's eyes widened, and his mind did a backflip when he realised he could either save himself or his friends. He reached out to throw fire at the rock cascading toward them, when both froze. The icicle stopped, a few centre metes from his heart, the rock held in place by a thin layer of green force. Janson frowned confusedly for a moment, before spotting the cause of the interruption.

"No." Thomas whispered.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"


	30. Thirty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> H o w am I already at thirty chapters with this, wtf. Out of all the pics I've written this one has felt like the shortest time, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not?? Anyway, enjoy!

"I'm Newt." The blond swallowed, Brenda taking the time Janson was distracted by and putting it to good use, healing Minho as quickly as she could.

"Those are some unique powers? Can you do anything else?" Janson queried casually, the blond glowering at him.

"Wouldn't you like to know." He grumbled. The man only sighed.

"I would, but it's no matter wether you tell me or not. I'm going to take them anyway."

"I'd like to see you try." Newt remarked, the man huffing. He waved his hand toward the blond, icicle appearing. Thomas immediately melted it, once again reminding Janson that there was more than one kid that he had to deal with. He growled, throwing rock toward the brunette, which Newt threw his force at, creating a forcefield that the rock bounced and broke against. 

Janson turned to Newt, trying a different approach and aiming a laser at the blond, who yelped and dove out of the way. He skittered toward Thomas as Gally assaulted the man with metal, the brunette taking his hand and drawing him close.

"Are you alright?" Newt asked, Thomas nodding curtly.

"Are you?" Newt nodded back, Teresa calling across to them.

"Newt! Get me up there!" The blond nodded, catching the woman when she jumped up. She ran up the staircase appearing in front of her, leaping and wrapping her arms around Janson's neck like a vice. The man yelled in surprise, his assaulter hanging on as she attempted to disorientate him and bring him back to the ground.

"Thomas! Shoot a shot!" Minho called from where he was being stood back on his feet. 

"I don't want to hit T!" He yelled back, Janson managing to shake her off. Newt easily caught her, and she landed back on the ground with a soft thump. Janson was now wild with fury, as he shot an icicle toward Teresa, Minho there in an instant and pulling her away. The man seemingly decided to have a change of tactics, turning as his attackers caught their breaths.

He turned toward Brenda, locking her eyes. She glared him down, fierce and unyielding. But as he stared on, her gaze became glassy, and she swayed slightly, before slumping to the floor.

"Brenda!" Her twin called out in fear, Minho holding her close to stop her from running toward her sister.

"She's been hypnotised, she's ok." He reassured. That was until Janson created a giant spear of unpolished rock from the ground up, aiming it at Brenda. That was when Newt reappeared, the same level as Janson, shooting a force toward him. it barely missed Janson and he whipped around, attention successfully diverted. Gally fired more shrapnel at him, Janson growling and blocking it with rock. He then turned toward Gally, shooting a laser his way. The man dived out of the way, yelping in pain when the laser hit his arm.

"Gally!" Thomas yelped, the man stumbling away from his attacker and toward his friend. Gally was clutching his arm tightly, groaning in pain and with no Brenda to fix him. Thomas wrapped an arm around his waist for support, pulling the other over his shoulder. His friend's eyes rolled backward as his legs gave out, slumping to the floor. 

Thomas, enraged, shot more fire at Janson, who only blocked him and turned toward him, motives evidently to pick them off one by one. Minho was running up the force then, wrapping a steal arm around Janson's neck and bringing him downward, unable to resist the pull of the Korean's super strength. 

Janson growled and blew him off with a burst of air, the Korean rolling toward Teresa's feet. She jumped over him as he stumbled back upward, running blindly and trusting that Newt would support her. She dodged Jansons' attacks until she got to his level, wrapping her legs around his throat and squeezing. He grasped at her ankles, trying to pry her away from him. He struggled and whirled downward, Teresa flying off, caught just in time by the force. 

It was Thomas' turn to attack Janson, shooting an entourage of fireballs at the man, who was off guard. The last one hit him square in the chest, sending the man sprawling for just a moment. He groaned, and waved his arm at his chest, healing himself before any of them either had a chance to move toward him. Teresa ran at him again, this time the man expecting her.

He threw her backward with a burst of air, the woman hitting a tree with a yelp. She slumped, eyes closed, and Thomas prayed to all the gods he could think of that his friends were ok.

"Min', get them together!" He ordered, "It'll be safer that way! Newt and I will hold him off!" He reported. Minho nodded curtly, zipping across the clearing and picking Brenda up. Newt and Thomas shot at the man together as Minho worked around them, Janson blocking their attacks fairly easily as he tried to shoot Minho or one of the casualties. Eventually, the Korean managed to amass the three behind Thomas, who he now put in charge of protecting them.

"You can't win this!" Janson laughed, throwing rock toward the three of them, which was early broken or dodged. He threw a boulder at Newt, who split it into half easily. One half flew off, and struck Minho in the head. Newt yelped as his friend dropped like a stone behind Thomas, eyes wide as Janson cackled.

"I'm so sorry." Newt whimpered to Minho, who was out cold. 

"And then there were three." Janson laughed, throwing Newt off guard with a blast of air. Newt went flying, rolling across the ground with a groan. Before Thomas had a chance to yell out his name, he was also blown backward, sent splaying next to his roommate. "Looks like this is it boys." Janson feigned a sigh, 'Don't worry. I'll let you stand in front of your friends, if it makes you feel like you died protecting them." he reassured. Newt stared at Thomas with large, helpless eyes, Thomas only squeezing his hand and getting up slowly, helping Newt with him.

They both knew they couldn't win, and they both knew they weren't making it out of this alive. As the two of them trudged back, hand in hand, and drained, Thomas had never felt such hopelessness.

He turned Newt around when they were stood in front of his friends, who were groaning and coming-to. 

"It'll be better if you close your eyes guys. We can't win." Thomas murmured brokenly, eyes never leaving Newt's.

"Alright boys, enough sentimental shit. I'll count you down." He rose two, huge spears of rock from the ground, sharp enough to impale the both of them and leave them stuck in the floor like javelins. Emotion throbbed at Thomas' heart, and he squeezed Newt's hand.

"3."

"Tommy," Newt whispered helplessly, grabbing at his other hand.

"2'

"Newt," Thomas replied, answering the unspoken question. 

"1"

Newt dove in and pressed his lips against Thomas. The kiss was full of passion, full of unspoken promises and missed time, full of 'what could have been's and 'if only we'd had more time'. Thomas' eyes were squeezed shut, waiting for the blow. The blow that never came.

He pulled away, still keeping Newt close, and glanced up, breath catching. Newt gasped, hand tightening around the fabric of Thomas' shirt at his chest. The trees surrounding the clearing had been flattened. The grass and soil around them was burning bright, and Janson was no where to be seen.

"Di- did we do that?" The blond whispered.

"Holy shit."

"Where did Janson go?" Newt pulled back, swivelling around.

"I don't know. But we have to get these guys back, they're not in good ways." He murmured, storing whatever the hell had just happened somewhere for later. Newt nodded, scooping up Teresa in his arms, and Gally and Minho in his force, allowing them to float and follow behind him. Thomas picked up Brenda, beginning his way back to the car. The two of them took a few seconds to inspect the flattened and burning mess that they had seemingly left behind, and Thomas swallowed tightly.

What the _fuck_ just happened?


	31. Thirty-one

"Jorge!" Thomas called, kicking the door open. Jorge appeared out of the kitchen, eyes widening when the two carried in their four friends. Jorge ushered them into the living room, where the two younger men lay Teresa and Brenda on the couches, Jorge throwing down cushions on the floor for hem to lay Gally and Minho on.

"What happened?" Jorge asked.

"We went up against Janson." Newt explained, "Brenda's ok, she got hypnotised. Gally got caught with a laser, Teresa got shoved against a tree, and Minho got hit in the head with a rock." He reported back, the older man analysing Gally's arm with a frown. 

"I think they'll be alright."

"Do you need anything?" Thomas asked, the man shaking his head.

"You should go." Thomas frowned, Jorge had never turned down their help before. "You both deserve a rest after that."

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" The brunette asked, Jorge smiling reassuringly at them.

"I promise they'll be ok. Go home, and get some rest. I'll keep you posted, and I'll tell you when they wake up." He assured, the brunette humming and glancing over his friends. He was worried about them of course, but he knew they were in good hands.

"You'll call if you need help?"

"Of course." Jorge stood them and ushered them from the room. "Go on, be young, live a little." Newt practically dragged Thomas toward the door, the brunette still reluctant to leave his friends. "And thank you." Jorge asked when they were at the door.

"What for?" Newt frowned.

"Keeping our family safe."

-

The two had been sat in silence for almost two hours, Newt gently cleaning Thomas' scratches and grazes with a wet flannel. 

"We should probably talk about what happened back there." Thomas finally piped up, the blond nodding.

"Yeah. I mean- I'm not gonna pretend I know what actually happened." He admitted, the brunette humming.

"I don't either. But I was thinking more along the lines of- like, what it means for us." Newt put the flannel back in the bowl, trawling into the small kitchenette to put it into the sink for alter, before returning.

"I'm sorry about that. I know we have our rules and all, and it probably doesn't make you trust me any more bu-"

"Newt," Thomas frowned, "Fuck the rules." Newt blinked at him.

"Really?" 

"Yeah." The brunette nodded incredulously. "It's so dumb. I'm so dumb!"

"No you're not." The blond immediately shot back.

"No, Newt, listen," Thomas pulled him back down onto his bed, keeping their fingers intertwined. Newt had a large graze across one cheek bone, but Thomas barley noticed, focused more on the sparkling of his dark eyes. "My rules were stupid, and I was stupid not to trust you. I should've as soon as I'd gotten to know you. You're not like Rachel- you are everything Rachel could never be. And I've been so dumb to wait to act on my feelings for you, because we could've been kissing like that, for so long. I want too, I want to be able to love you and not worry about what fucking rules I broke. Because that's the truth, Newt. The truth is that I love you. A fuck of a lot." He admitted. Newt only stared at him in bewilderment, dark eyes glassy. He dove at Thomas, wrapping his arms around his neck tightly.

"I love you too." he murmured into the brunette's neck.

"I know, and I'm sorry it took me so long to say it back." Thomas only murmured, Newt pulling back marginally to glance at Thomas' lips in a question.

"We can take things slow if you want." The blond offered.

"Fuck slow." Thomas huffed, before pulling the blond closer and into his lips. Newt only smiled against them, bringing him impossibly closer. Thomas grasped gently at his grazed cheek, running a thumb over it as his other hand went to Newt's side. They only pulled away fractionally and for a second, before diving back into it, becoming clear that this was not just about to be a one kiss moment.

Thomas felt as if he had to make up for all the missing kisses, the missing time he could've been doing this. Why hadn't been doing this since the get go?? This was incredible.

Newt was soft against his lips, tasting like something slightly sweet, and smelling distinctly like the crisp air of fall, with all the leaves crunching under their feet. Thomas wanted more than this, he wanted to spend the falls with Newt, playing in the leaves, and he wanted to be able to cuddle up on the couch in the winter and be able to drink the sweet tea that Newt made so well.

The two rolled over on the bed, Thomas ending up on top of him and kneeling above him, hands holding up on either side of the blond's head.

"Do you want this?" He murmured, Newt only swallowing and nodding. "It'll be better this time, I promise."

"It really wasn't that bad Tommy." The blond reassured, the brunette humming.

"But I don't remember it. So this is like my first time with you. And so I'll make it as special as I can." Newt smiled warmly at him, eyes sparkling.

"Ok."  

Thomas took things as slowly as his own limits would allow him, drowning in Newt, and Newt alone. He took the time to admire the blonds' quirks, how he'd scrunch his brow up and tighten his grip on Thomas' hands, breath catching. The brunette relished in every tiny sounds the blond made, as if he'd never get to hear it again. He asked himself again and again why they hadn't been doing this from the start, and why in gods name he'd been so off his face drunk that he couldn't even remember taking Newt's damn virginity. 

Newt clung to him, and Thomas smiled to himself at the knowledge that Newt was a clingy one. His heart hummed warmly at the thought of Newt letting him see him so vulnerable, and how he was the only one to ever see the blond in such a state. He mentally flipped both Alby and Matt off, wondering how in the hell they could dump the angel underneath him. Still, the brunette had to thank them, for if they hadn't dumped him, Thomas was fairly certain he'd never had ended up in this situation in the first place.

Thomas thought Newt looked perfect when he finished. The brunette thought back to when he'd first laid eyes on the blond. He'd be lying if he said he'd never thought about what Newt would look like in the situation, but when the blond's breath caught and he panted against Thomas' shoulder, flushed and sweaty, Thomas was sure he'd never seen anything as beautiful.

"You're gorgeous." He voiced, the blond smacking him on the shoulder.

"No!" 

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"Being sweet!" Newt reasoned, Thomas huffing.

"This is the thanks I get for being the best boyfriend ever." 

"Boyfriend?"

"If you want." Thomas hummed.

"I do want!" Newt grinned. "I want very much."

"How do you think the others are gonna take it?" Thomas frowned, Newt humming for a moment.

"I think they'll say 'I told you so', or they might be mad that we didn't tell them."

"I hope they're mad." Thomas scoffed, the blond only laughing.

"Of course you do." He yawned softly, and Thomas drew up the duvet to cover Newt's unshielded shoulder. 

"Get some sleep." He hummed, Newt curling up into his side without protest. 

"Alright," Newt yawned again, wrapping one arm around Thomas' middle as the brunette's went to his back, rubbing at his shoulder as Newt's hair tickled his chin. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight Newt." Thomas closed his eyes with a soft smile, listening to Newt's breathing as he waited for sleep to take him.

"Tommy?" The blond murmured tiredly after a few minutes. When Thomas hummed in acknowledgement, he continued. "I love you." Thomas' smile grew, and he cuddled the blond impossibly closer.

"I love you too, Angel."


	32. Thirty-two

"Hey." Thomas knocked on the door, the four glancing up. Gally, Minho, Teresa and Brenda were huddled around Jorge's kitchen table, scratched and holding warm mugs of warm tea. They grinned at the two coming in, Newt and the brunette drawing up chairs and sitting down. "How are you guys feeling?"

"Better." Brenda smiled back, "Thanks for saving us." The others nodded in agreement, Thomas shrugging it off.

"It's nothing.'

"Yeah, of course. We know you'd do the same for us." Newt tacked on, the brunette nodding.

"Do you want me to get that?" Brenda asked, pointing to the graze on the blond's cheek.

"Oh, Yes please." He leant forward, the woman cupping his cheek, and removing her hands  few seconds later, the damage invisible. Teresa cleared her throat.

"Can we talk about the elephant in the room please?" She pressed, the others frowning at her. "What the fuck did you two do? Where did Janson go?? And you kissed! What about club guy???" She demanded, Thomas and Newt exchanging a glance. Teresa's eyes widening. "Thomas was club guy!"

"What?!" Minho's eyebrows shot up.

"Are you guys dating?!" Brenda demanded, Thomas quelling them with his hand. He glanced at Newt for permission, the blond only nodding with a soft.

"We've been.. well- we've known we liked each other for a while but we set some rules until I was ready." He explained. "But now we're together."

"Finally!" Gally groaned, all eyes whipping to him.

"You knew?!"

"Why didn't I know about this?!"

"Jesus, one question at a time." Newt laughed. "Gally knew because he saw us leaving the club together. We didn't tell you all because we didn't want to get your hopes up until we were official."

"So have you just been fucking behind our backs?" Minho asked, the blond scoffing.

"No, one of our rules was actually no sex. We just kinda- broke that one." He laughed, rubbing at the back of his neck.

"Kinky are we Newt?" Teresa teased, Thomas choking slightly, the woman frowning. "What? Am I close?"

"No, T. You couldn't be further from close." He laughed, Newt only smacking his arm. 

"What do you-" Her eyes widened, and when her twin didn't understand and egged her to explain, she continued, "Did you take his virginity?!" She hissed. Newt groaned, turning red and burying his head in his arms. Thomas only cleared his throat, and Teresa lost it. "Oh my god!"

"Thomas!"

"Newt!"

"What the fuck?!"

"Stop talking about my virginity you pervs!" Newt shot them down, Teresa sinking back into her seat.

"There is a lot to unpack here." Gally ran a hand over his face, Teresa frowning.

"So- do you know what happened when you kissed?" She asked with a frown, Thomas shaking his head with his eyebrows furrowed.

"No? Am I supposed to? Do you?"

"Well- It's kinda obvious. I guess- more so from my perspective." She admitted. "Basically, there was rock coming at you, and you kissed. There was this massive explosion, of green fire, and it blew everything backward, I mean- _really_ far backward. Even Janson."

"But what was it?" Minho asked with a frown.

"I think it was a power surge. But like- a double one? Or something? That's the only way I can describe it, I've never seen anything like it." 

"Do- I mean- do Newt and Thomas' powers mix together? Cuz that could be dangerous." Gally frowned, the brunette and blond glancing at each other.

"I mean- I guess theres only one way to find out." Teresa shrugged, Thomas sticking out a hand.

"Woah woah woah, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. We got _thrashed_ back there, we need to think about what we're gonna do."

"There's not much we can do Thomas." Brenda sighed with a huff, "I mean, we had a battle plan, and we had a strategy. You can't have one when you're against him, we only have to try our best." She shrugged defeatedly.

"What if our best's not enough? I mean- it hasn't seemed to work out." Newt frowned deeply.

"I know, but what else can we do?" Brenda shot back with a sigh. 

"I guess." Newt sighed.

"We'll be ok though." Minho piped up. 'We just need to get our heads in the game. Sort out our plan better, prepare better." They only nodded, none of them speaking the thought that they had no chance up against Janson.

-

"Teresa," She glanced up at him, Thomas sitting down with a sigh. The others had gone out to discuss plans and prepare, Teresa going in to make more tea.

"Tom!" She chirped, "I just wanna say- I'm really happy for you. Even if you kept you and Newt from me." She laughed, Thomas offering a small smile.

"Thanks T." He ran a hand through his hair, the woman frowning.

"What? What's wrong?"

"It's Newt." He admitted, picking at his nails, "I know that he was useful in the fight, and saved all of us at one point but- but if Janson comes back, I- I don't want him to be there." Teresa frowned.

"Why not?" She dipped the teabags into the mugs, turning to lean against the counter. "Don't you think he knows what he's doing well enough?"

"No, no, I do." Thomas nodded. "And- I hate to be selfish but- well fuck it. I'm being selfish. I don't want him to get hurt."

"You don't think he can take care of himself?" She frowned, throwing out the teabags and adding the milk.

"I do, of course. He's tough enough, I know that. I just- he's the first person I've loved since Rachel, T." He stood at the counter, the woman meeting his eye with a confused frown at what he was getting at. "He's so- he's perfect. He's so sweet and- and I just- I don't want him to get hurt. I mean, fuck, if he even sneezes I have to ask if he's ok." He stopped to frown for a moment "It's- it's hard to describe. I just don't want anything to touch him- I want to keep him safe- from everything."

"You want to protect him from the outside world?" She asked, popping in the sugar and turning to Thomas with an eyebrow raised.

"Exactly." Thomas nodded.

"And you know you can't do that, don't you? You can't play God like that Tom, it's not your place." He sighed deeply.

"I know." I just- I don't want him to get hurt. He's precious to me."

"Thomas, I know that you want to keep him safe, but he needs to be able to make his own choices." She smiled, picking up the mugs. "It's not your place to decide what battles he gets to fight." She explained, leaving the room to go outside. 

Thomas frowned at the floor for a while in thought, before pulling out his phone. He stared at it in thought, clicking on his text messages and swallowing.

**[To Sonya: Hey, I need a favour.]**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof sorry for the short chapter <33


	33. Thirty-three

"Tommy," Newt hummed from where he was writing, "Can we go out today?"

"Out? Out where?" Thomas asked, the  blond shrugging.

"I just want to spend the day with my boyfriend y'know? Forget that there's a bloke trying to kill us?"

"Ok." The brunette laughed softly, "Where should we go?"

"Uh-" the blond bit his lip, "The park maybe? We could get ice-cream?"

"Sounds perfect."

-

"What flavour are you gonna get?" Thomas asked, the blond humming in thought.

"I'm gonna get....mint choc chip." He decided with a grin, Thomas staring at him.

"Are you serious? I'm sorry Angel, we can't be together anymore." He signed a sigh, the blond shoving him as they waited in the queue.

"Shut up. You like peanuts!'

"Yeah, because I have good taste." Thomas shot back, Newt only smirking.

"Maybe not in food, but certainly in men." He laughed, the brunette rolling his eyes.

"You're insufferable." He grumbled, before ordering their ice cream, and handing it to the blond before he had time to sulk. It seemed to work. Newt was slightly like a child: Thomas knew when he was going to strop, and food or a distraction would usually cut the problem at the root, and Newt wouldn't even remember why he was sulking in the first place. This was one of those times, when Newt happily ate his ice cream and hummed, trotting along through the park beside Thomas.

"th'sgood!" He grinned, Thomas smiling.

"Good, I'm glad." He hummed, taking a bite from his own neapolitan.

"How's yours?" Newt asked, eyeing his ice-cream. The brunette smiled, offering him a spoonful which the blond eagerly took.

"It's good." Thomas watched Newt chew for a moment, face morphing in consideration. 'You like it?"

"It's good. Mines better though." The blond decided, Thomas humming.

"Whatever you say." Thomas frowned for a moment, mind flitting to a different subject. "Newt?"

"Yes?"

"Y'know how I'm kinda protective over you, and kinda have a habit of growling at guys who eye you up?" Newt only laughed good-naturedly, nodding. "Does it bother you?"

"Why would it?" The blond frowned, Thomas shrugging.

"Not everyone likes jealous boyfriends."

"Well you're not being jealous." The blond shot back. "If it was with every guy I come into contact with, I'd have an issue with it. But because it's only guys that are into me, and I know you're only looking out for me, I don't mind. I think it's kinda sweet- kinda hot." He shrugged, liking at his ice-cream thoughtfully. 

"Would you be mad if I punched someone over it?" He asked, Newt frowning deeply.

"I just wouldn't want you to get arres- Tommy what do you keep looking at?" Thomas glanced back at Newt, only huffing.

"Sorry. I'm just fairly certain that guys been staring at you for the past two minutes." Newt only waved it off, taking his hand.

"Don't worry about it babe, there's no point dwelling." Thomas huffed, disapproving of the thought but nodding all the same, trawling after his boyfriend as Newt led him away. Thomas followed him through the park for a while, relishing in the feeling of the blonds' hand in his and the soft breeze of the cool air. Then his bliss was interrupted.

"Hello." Newt stopped short, a man in front of them, appearing from seemingly nowhere.

"Oh- hello?" The blond politely smiled, apparently unaware of where he came from either, "Can I help you?"

"I was just looking around the park, and I noticed you." He shrugged, Thomas rating up next to the blond, "I just thought you were very handsome."

"Oh-" Newt blinked, smiling again, a little hesitantly, "Thank you."

"My name's Connor." The man announced, holding a hand out for Newt to shake. He'd made sure to force Newt to shake with his holding-thomas'-hand hand, and the brunette was not happy about it.

"Newt." He murmured.

"So, Newt, I'm having a party tonight, at mine. Me, couple of other guys. You could come if you wanted, we have room for one more." Connor avoided eye contact with Thomas, and ignored the way the brunette's arm snaked around Newt's waist.

"Oh- um- I'm gonna have to decline." The blond leant into Thomas, visibly uncomfortable. 

"Are you sure?" Connor raised an eyebrow, "I mean, there is definitely room for someone like," He glanced Newt up and down, " _You_. My friends would be more than happy to have someone as pretty as you to play with." Thomas was about to launch himself at Connor, the blond putting a firm palm on his chest. Connor looked slightly wary of the brunette. He had muscles, but compared to Thomas, he looked like a twig, that the brunette wanted to snap. _Badly._

"I actually have plans tonight. Plans that don't involve being manhandled by a group of men who see other people as nothing but sex toys, and not humans who need to be loved and cherished. My boyfriend here, he knows a lot about that. How to make people feel loved. That's actually how he ended up with a boyfriend- cuz he's not a dickhead with his head up his ass." Connor was fuming, and had the audacity to grab Newt by the wrist.

"Listen here yo-" 

"What the fuck do you think you're-" Thomas started, two milliseconds away from launching himself at the man. Newt was staring at the hand on his wrist, and raised his eyes up to meet Connors', with a stare that could kill a man.

"Get your hands off of me." His voice was ice cold, and Connor hesitantly retreated. Thomas then wasted no more time in diving for Connor, only to get pushed back by the blond. "Thomas, stop." He tried, turning to Connor. "Walk away. Walk the fuck away." The man turned with one last lingering glance, hurrying back down the path. The blond stopped trying so hard to hold back his fuming boyfriend, instead cupping the back of his neck and bringing their foreheads together, ignoring the stares they were getting from pedestrians. 

"Tommy breathe. Calm down, it's ok." He murmured, the brunette only grumbling. 

"How fucking dare he." He hissed. Newt only shushed him, running a thumb over his cheek.

"It's ok. It's alright, he's gone." he reassured. Thomas breathed deeply, crisp fall scent falling over him as his breathing steadied and his blood cooled.

"Sorry." He murmured, "I should be the one comforting you."

"Its ok." The blond hummed, eyes still closed, "There are bad people out there. I don't need to worry though."

"Why not?" The brunette frowned.

"Cuz if it comes down to it, I know you'll punch someone for me. For the record, if we weren't in public, I would've let you at him." He smiled softly, moving away and leading the brunette down the path again.

'You are an angel." Thomas hummed happily, heart swelling at Newt's laugh.

"Does that make you the devil?" He asked, the brunette shrugging.

"Is that hot?"

"It might be." Newt shrugged. "I mean it would make sense. Fire does come out of your hands."

"We should do a joint halloween costume." Thomas hummed, the blond laughing again. 

"The only reason I'd ever agree to that is to see you as a demon. I'm not sure we'd make it outside."

"We definitely wouldn't if you were dressed like an angel." Thomas shrugged, Newt feigning offence.

"Aren't I always?"


	34. Thirty-four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AYYyyy IT's my birthday eskkeit

"So, in conclusion, I've got nothing." Brenda finished her pitch of a battle plan, Thomas pinching the bride of his nose and groaning, crossing her name off of the list. 

"Does _anyone_ have _anything_?" He asked, the group shrugging.

"I don't get why we're even doing this." Minho frowned, "I mean, there's not gonna be much point in making a plan. He's just gonna wreck it." 

"We don't know that for sure." Thomas reasoned, "Our plan might be the reason we win."

"Well we have a plan- we had a plan." The Korean countered, "Teresa and I distract him, Brenda be ready to heal us and you and Gally disarm the machine, but that plan didn't do much for us did it, mate?"

"Admittedly- no. But that's a fairly general plan. I'm talking in depth, like- if he makes an icicle, we know how to get rid of it. Rock: We have a solution for that. Air: Got that covered." He explained. 

"Well you're the only one that can get rid of his icicles." Gally shot in, Minho nodding.

"And Newt can do the rocks- and apparently hit me in the head with them."

"Sorry." Newt mumbled sheepishly.

"Air- uh-" Brenda hummed. "I got nothing for air, but it was kind of a big problem."

"And the hypnosis." Teresa chipped in. 

"Hypnosis is easy." Newt shrugged. "Just close your eyes."

"Yeah great plan Isaac Newton, close your eyes so you can't see when he impales you with an icicle the size of a human." Teresa deadpanned across the table, Newt huffing.

"Well I don't see you coming up with any better ideas." It was Teresa's turn to huff, as Thomas stuck a hand out.

"Can we all just stop arguing?" He grumbled, hand placed on Newt's thigh reassuringly. "Your suggestion was greatly appreciated, Angel."

"Thank you." The blond huffed, turning back to his botany essay that he was drawing various succulents on. 

"Well they say the best way to stop hypnosis is to tell yourself you don't want it to work. Then it usually doesn't." Gally chipped in, tracing a finger around the rim of his mug.

"Gal', I was telling myself that. You think I wanted that?" Brenda raised an eyebrow, the man waving her off.

"No, obviously not. I'm just saying, maybe you let it happen because you weren't prepared, you didn't have you guard up." He theorised, Minho frowning. 

"What are you suggesting?"

"Well- it's not exactly a foolproof plan, but just- to not make eye contact, and if you do, yell at yourself to look away or something."

"Ok," Thomas crossed that off of his other checklist, "Any ideas for the air issue?"

"Ummm-" Teresa pursed her lips in thought, "Newt?"

"What now?" The blond glanced up.

"You think Newt can stop _air_?" Brenda raised an eyebrow again.

"Well I dunno. Who's to say he can't? At this point I'm fairly certain Newt can stop anything." Teresa hummed, Newt frowning.

"I'm not so sure about that." Thomas only waved him off, scribbling 'Newt?' next to 'air' on his checklist.

"Is that it?" Gally asked, the brunette straightening his notes.

"Yeah. Our plan is: fucking pray. Our best bets are: melting the icicles, breaking the rock, looking away from hypnosis and hoping Newt is stronger than he thinks."

"I have a lot of worries about this plan." Newt piped up. 

"It'll be ok." Brenda shrugged. "You got this."

-

"Tommy, can we talk?" When he turned to Newt, the blond looked upset- almost crestfallen and disappointed. Thomas only nodded, curiosity flaring at him as he followed the blond into the hall.

"Whats up?" He asked, Newt sighing deeply.

"I'm worried." He admitted, Thomas frowning.

"Well that's ok. We're all worried."

"No," Newt corrected him, "I'm worried you're putting too much trust in me. I'm not sure I can do half of the things you're trusting me to do, and- I don't want to be the reason anything happens to any of you. I mean- I know we joke about it, but I feel awful about Minho. And I'd just- I know I'd never forgive myself if anything happened." He murmured. Thomas took him by the shoulders and simply smiled reassuringly. 

"You've got nothing to worry about Newt. You got this."

"No," Newt said again frustratedly, "You're not listening. I don't got this. I don't know what I'm doing. Like- I know I've supposedly cracked my powers, but I'm still really, really new to this." Thomas furrowed his brow toward the blond.

"But you were doing so well."

"Yeah, and what did I do for the entire day afterwards?" Newt asked, crossing his arms over his chest to emphasise his point.

"You.." Thomas thought back for a moment, "You stayed in bed, with all the curtains drawn and the lights off. You were really sick."

"Yeah," The blond nodded, "Cuz it hurts. Using my powers as much as I did, made me really, really ill. You seem to be forgetting that I'm new to this. I may have control over my powers, but sometimes I sneeze and I'll shoot a plant off my shelf. I had the hiccups the other day and I split the entire carton of orange juice in half!"

"Wha- Newt, you told me we'd ran out."

"Because I was embarrassed." The blond sighed. "Just because I know how to do something doesn't make me good at it. And- and I know that my powers are unique, and so far they've been pretty powerful, and I know you all wanna see what I can do, but I don't want your curiosity to get you killed. Because if Janson throws that air at someone, and I can't stop it, it could kill them."

"You're saying you don't think you can do it?" Thomas frowned.

"I'm saying I'm not as robust as you think I am. My powers are strong, but I'm really not. Because at the end of the day, I haven't been doing this as long as you guys have: I'm not as strong, mentally as you. I have at least one nap a day, and sometimes I'm late to lectures because I have to massage my bad leg. I'm human Tommy, I'm more than my powers, and even though they wouldn't fuck up, and they won't get tired and sick if they're put into use too much, _I will_." Thomas sighed deeply, watching the pleading expression on his boyfriends' face.

"What do you need?"

"I need you to have a backup plan, or something. Something that's more reliable."

"Ok." Thomas agreed readily, sighing again. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok. I'm sorry I can't live up to the person you want me to be." Thomas frowned disapprovingly.

"Newt, you are everything I could ever want you to be."

-

"Wheres Newt and Minho?" Thomas rubbed at his eyes, coming in from his nap.

"They're chatting. Min' went out for a smoke." Brenda hummed. 

"Right," Thomas grumbled, sitting down in a slump and pouring himself a cup of the communal coffee strainer. 

"You have a good nap?" Teresa asked.

"Was alright. Would've preferred it if Newt was there though." Teresa 'awed', Brenda scrunching her nose up in disgust. Gally only scoffed at her reaction.

"What was that?"

"Love is gross." She shrugged.

"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Gally shot back, Brenda huffing.

"We're not that gross."

"We're not gross!" Thomas scoffed. "I just love him."

"Aw!" Teresa grinned. "I think you two are really, really cute."

"Thanks T." Gally hummed, turning to Brenda.

"Bren', I don't think I've seen a picture of your boyfriend." He decided, the woman cocking her head slightly.

"Have you not? Well, come on, I'll show you." She got up from her chair, trotting up the stairs with her friend in tow, leaving Teresa and Thomas alone.

"For the record, I think you and Newt are cuter than Bren' and Fry." She laughed, Thomas scoffing.

"Are you allowed to say that as her sister?"

"Well I'm just being honest." She shrugged. "You two are really adorable."

"Thanks." Thomas smiled. Teresa hummed, before freezing.

"Tom."

"Yes?" He frowned at her movement and the way her eyes widened.

"He's close." Teresa then shot up, barreling up the stairs to warn Gally and Brenda. Thomas was on his feet in an instant, whipping out his phone.

**[To Sonya: Now]**


	35. Thirty-five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the birthday wishes, love y'all :,)))

Newt hurried inside a few seconds later, to Thomas' relief.

"I've got to go," he said hurriedly, "family issue." 

"Oh, that's ok. Go be with them." Thomas reassured as casually as he could, the blond pecking him on the lips on his way out.

"You'll text me if you need me, won't you?"

"Sure will Angel."

"Ok," Newt nodded, throwing on his jacket, "I love you."

"I love you too." Thomas smiled, eyeing the staircase and silently egging him to leave. Newt shot him one last smile and left. Teresa barrelled down the stairs with Gally and Brenda in tow less than two seconds later.

"Who just left??" Teresa demanded.

"Newt. He had a family emergency." Thomas shrugged.

"And you let him go?? We need him!" She snapped, rushing from the room to find Minho. Gally frowned at Thomas as Brenda followed her sister out.

"Did you do this?" He asked, the brunette only shooting him a look. "Thomas!" Gally hissed, "why would you do that?"

"Hey, don't act like we didn't plan the same thing two months ago." He shot back defensively.

"That was different, he had no idea what he was doing. Newt's good enough with his powers to decide what battles he gets to fight." Gally frowned, the brunette only shrugging. Thomas did feel bad, he would admit. But he was only doing what his heart was telling him too, and he only hoped Newt could find it in his won to forgive him, if he made it out alive.

"I just don't want him to get hurt." He sighed simply.

"Thomas, we need him. All of us are gonna get hurt if-" The others barged in, Teresa practically sweating with stress.

"Aright, we're on our own." She announced. "Newt has left us, so, we're all gonna die."

"T, don't be ridiculous." Thomas frowned. "We'll be ok."

"How?? How are we gonna be ok?? Newt's the only one that can stop half of Janson's attacks!"

"Then we'll have to improvise." The brunette shot back.

"We're gonna die!"

"Teresa stop." He huffed, the woman, not stopping. 

"We don't have a plan without Newt. He saved us all, at some point, one way or another. And without him, and without a plan, we're screwed." She stated matter-of-factly, Minho humming.

"What if we wait? Wait for Newt to get back, and wait till we have a better plan?"

"I can't wait that long." Teresa huffed. She'd become shaky and sweaty. "And he's close. I can feel it."

"How close?" Gally asked.

"Like, a mile away." She shrugged defeatedly. 'And he's coming this way."

"So, we're screwed." Brenda groaned. 

"We are not." Thomas tried his best to keep the morale up, but it hadn't seemed to work out very well. "We're gonna survive. We do have a plan, and we can do this without Newt."

"Thomas, mate, give it up." Minho grumbled, arms crossed over his chest.

"No!" He huffed. "Look, I get that we're all stressed, and I admit, we are probably going to die, but you have to stop being like this. Because at the end of the day, Janson is coming wether we like it or not, and we are just gonna have to accept that. We're probably gonna die, and we may not be able to stop him from world domination and destruction, but we can't say we didn't try. What would you rather? Go down with a fight, or live and become slaves to his new world, where we have no means of defending ourselves, or of freedom?" His friends were silent for a moment, before Gally sighed reluctantly.

"Thomas is right."

"I mean- I'd like to just- not die, but you know." Brenda murmured.

"Oh fuck it let's do this." Minho shrugged, Teresa throwing her head back and groaning.

"I hate my life."

-

"This is a shit idea." Minho grumbled as the five of them crawled through the forest.

"It's the best out of the ones we had. He would've known we were coming from a mile off if we'd brought the 4 x 4." Teresa shrugged.

"I know that." The Korean hissed back.

"T, he's calling us stupid." Gally hummed from the back.

"Oh." 

"Teresa are we close, I've almost taken my eye out with three branches as is." Thomas mumbled, the woman waving him off.

"Yeah, we're close." The five crawled around on the forest floor for a few minutes, Thomas feeling ridiculously dumb. He understood that the element of surprise was important, but he was fairly certain there were better ways to go about it. After a few more minutes, Teresa stuck her hand out. Thomas glanced out from behind her to see the clearing, Janson with machine and all, humming. Teresa gave the signal to spread out, and Thomas turned, crawling around the clearing. 

He tried his best to not stand on any twigs, and held his breath as he got into position. Janson sighed.

"You can come out, I know you're there." He shrugged. When no one moved, Thomas took a deep breath, standing up. Teresa shot him a glare from the long grass to stay down, but the brunette ignored it. 'Ah. You're Thomas." Janson pointed out.

"Yeah." Thomas nodded, bitterness for the man in front of him tasting like bile at the back of his throat.

"Are your friends here too?" The man asked, Thomas shaking his head.

"No. It's just me."

"And what are you doing here?"

"I want to fight you, again. You hurt my friends, and you have to pay." He growled. Janson humming. 

"You haven't even brought your little boyfriend? The one with the amazing powers, that are so powerful a kiss blew me a mile back?"

"A _mile_?" Thomas repeated, slightly dumbfounded and caught off guard.

"Yes. It seems your powers caused a power surge reaction. I've only ever heard about such things within fiction. You are quite the power." He chuckled. "Although I am rather upset you haven't brought blondie. His powers- god, what I could accomplish with them."

"Tough luck I guess." Thomas only shrugged.

"What can he do, pray tell?" Janson raised an eyebrow, Thomas frowning deeply.

"Like I'd tell you."

"I thought we were friends." Janson sighed, "Besides, I haven't killed any of your friends yet" He shrugged, Thomas deadpanning. 

"You tried too."

"But I didn't, so you have no reason to be mad."

"You killed Zart's friends." Thomas countered, Janson waving him off.

"You didn't know Zart, it doesn't matter to you. Or, it shouldn't." He hummed, Thomas staring at him incredulously.

"I don't need to know someone to show them empathy. Just like I don't know the billions of people you would enslave, doesn't mean I'm not gonna try to stop your psycho ass."

"Well then," Janson sighed, "We should probably get started with your attempt then."

"Sounds good." Thomas nodded. The man waved his hand, creating a huge icicle and throwing it. Thomas dove out of the way, and when he looked again Janson was yelping in surprise as Teresa wrapped her legs around his neck and dug her hands into his eyes.


	36. Thirty-six

Thomas hit the floor again with a thud, groaning as he rolled across the hard ground. His entire body was screaming with effort, and yet, he pushed up on his shaking arms and got back up, only to duck when Teresa flew over his head and tumbled across the floor. Thomas rushed to help her up, tugging her back onto her feet.

"Are you ok?" He asked, the woman nodding.

"I'll be fine, but we're not getting anywhere." She frowned.

"I know. We've just go to keep trying. He'll get tired soon." He reassured himself more than her.

"He doesn't seem to be. And we're the ones getting tired." she grumbled back, before diving out of the way of an attack forcing them apart. Thomas fired at the icicle, melting it into the ground. 

Admittedly, Janson didn't seem to be getting very tired. They'd been at it for gods knew how long, Thomas could only guess a few hours, and the man had showed no signs of yielding or slipping up. Thomas frowned in distress as he dived from a huge rock. He didn't know what to do, he didn't know how to stop him. 

Then something clicked. It was risky, and he hadn't had the time to think it through properly, but they were running out of options.

"I've got an idea!" Thomas called to them, ushering Minho over. The Korean blurred for a millisecond, appearing next to his friend. "Tell the others we need to hook Janson up to his own machine, suck his powers from him." Minho frowned deeply at him.

"And get so close to it? That could end badly." he murmured, the brunette sighing frustratedly.

"I know, but what other option have we got." Thomas shoved the Korean away from him when a blast of air came their way to separate them. Minho nodded curtly at him, zipping around to pass on the message. None of them looked particularly happy about the plan, but they seem to agree that it was a good last resort. 

"How?" Brenda called across. Thomas mouthed, _'get him that way'_ at her, the woman nodding. The circle around their enemy shifted toward the machine slightly, Janson seemingly not noticing.

 _'We have to get him on the ground.'_ Teresa mouthed at the others, Thomas nodding at her. Teresa rolled her eyes, but nodded anyway. "Leg up!" She called. She ran at the man, Minho there, just as she'd wanted, crouching down. She jumped on his back, pushing her upward before she could wrap her arms around his neck. Janson growled, attempting to shake her off. Teresa got leverage, wrestling for control with the man in the sky. Thomas watched nervously as the two began to spiral toward the ground. 

When they crashed, Teresa went flying, yelping. Minho was quicker though, there to catch her before she hit the floor. She barrelled into him, knocking them both to the ground and sending them rolling. Janson was up in an instant, attempting to push off back into the air again.

Thomas threw fire at him, which he dodged, but did graze Janson's shoulder, the man crying out and stumbling back. He threw an icicle at Thomas blindly, which missed by a mile. What no one had been expecting though, was for Janson's flailing arms to redirect the icicle, and drive it deep into Thomas'  shoulder. The brunette cried out, knees buckling. 

Gally immediately took over the job of keeping Janson on the ground, Brenda rushing to Thomas' side. She tugged out the icicle, much to the brunette's protest, and placed her hand over the wound. It felt better almost instantly, and Thomas shakily got back onto his feet, taking Janson by surprise when he fired again.

Janson stumbled back, and kept stumbling, falling back into his machine. Minho rushed forward excitably, clamping the manacles around his wrists. The group cheered in success, Thomas jogging toward the on switch. 

"No! Let me go!" Janson demanded.

"Oh yeah, totally, can do." Teresa rolled her eyes. 

"You can't do this. It won't work." He shrugged, "It'll blow up, kill all of us." 

"You're expecting us to trust you now?" Minho raised an eyebrow. Janson sighed.

"Go on then, do it. Prove me wrong." Thomas' hand hesitated, and his eyebrows furrowed.

"Why would it explode?" He asked, Janson rolling his eyes as if the answer was obvious.

"Because I built it not to work on me, like a smart person. You didn't really expect me to be that stupid, did you?"

"So you're saying we should just let you go?" Brenda scoffed, "Don't take this bullshit Thomas."

"Do you want to die?" Janson demanded. Brenda huffed.

"If it means stopping you, I'm not opposed to the idea."

"Uh-" her twin interjected, "I am opposed to the idea."

"She's smart." Janson nodded toward Teresa, who glowered at him. 

"So what do we do?" Thomas brought the conversation back. 

"Switch it." Brenda shrugged.

"What if we all die?" Teresa asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"He's probably bullshitting us." 

"'Probably' being the key term there." She shot back at her sister. 

"Well we can't just let him go." Brenda shrugged.

"Then let's get GOPO here." She advised. 

"He deserves worse than what GOPO will do to him." Gally interjected, Teresa turning on him.

"Well personally I don't think we deserve to die."

"Teresa's right, GOPO is our best option." Thomas hummed, Gally sighing in defeat.

"Fine." Thomas reached round to scan Janson's neck, when he made eye contact. Eye contact he couldn't find himself willing to break. Thomas' head became fuzzy, and he was confused when he reached forward to release Janson from the manacles. Teresa reached out to stop him, yelling something at him, but Thomas only shoved her backward and undid one of the bindings. The brunette was yelling at himself to stop, to try and take back control of his mind, but nothing was working. 

Minho shoved him away from the machine, and Janson cocked his head, Thomas' arm lifting up and punching Minho square across the jaw. Brenda rushed to his side as Thomas marched froward, undoing the other binding. Janson immediately got up, waving his arm. A huge burst of air threw them all backward, and Thomas blacked out as soon as he hit the deck. 

-

When Thomas groaned and woke up, he heard explosions and yells around him. He forced himself up onto his elbows, rolling over to see what the commotion was. His head was pounding, when he saw Teresa narrowly miss a fireball. Despite the shaking in his limbs, Thomas got back onto his feet, immediately blown fore toward the enemy to throw him off of Teresa. Janson ducked under it and reeled on him, only to get hit in the head with a slab of metal. The man cursed, and glowered at Gally, before throwing a rock at him. 

Janson was apparently getting incredibly sick of the group, groaning.

"Do you really wanna do this? You can't win, you may as well give up."

"What and let you enslave billions of people, yeah funny idea." Minho quipped back, dodging a burst of air.

"Well I'm going to do it anyway, you may as well stop trying to stop me." Janson shrugged, Thomas rolling his eyes.

"It's not going to happen. We're going to stop you or we're going to die trying." The man seemed disappointed by that, huffing.

"Well we can't have you dying yet, I still need your powers."

"I'rather kill myself than give you my powers." Gally spat, Janson frowned.

"Alright then. You asked for this." He sighed, waving his arms slightly. Thomas frowned, unsure of what he was doing. Until the ground began to shake, and his eyes widened.

"He can control his power bursts." He whispered. Thomas opened his mouth to call out, before the force hit the ground. The five of them were thrown backward, Thomas hitting a collapsing tree with the back of his head. The last thing he could think about was Newt, and how glad he was that he'd kept him away.

Not even an angel could beat the devil.


	37. Thirty-seven

When Thomas awoke, he could feel the tight bindings around his wrists, preventing him from using his powers. He raised his heavy head, surveying the sight before him. All of his friends were chained up similarly to him, all coming too. Janson was humming, leaning casually by the on switch.

"Ah! About time you all woke up." He grinned.

"What the.." Gally grumbled next to Thomas. 

"Why haven't you flipped the switch yet??" Thomas demanded, his enemy sighing. 

"Well, as much as I would like you all out of my way, we have some unfinished business." He explained, his prisoners frowning.

"What do you want?" Minho glowered at him. Janson pushed himself off of the side of the machine, coming to stand in front of the group. 

"I want Thomas to call Newt." All eyes went to the brunette, who glowered at Janson.

"Not happening."

"I want you to call him, tell him where you are and the situation you're in." Janson continued, ignoring Thomas' protests.

"No." The brunette refused. Janson sighed, creating a sharp icicle, sharp enough to slice, and marched over to Teresa. He grabbed her by the hair and held the icicle to her throat. 

"Let's try it again, shall we? Call him." He demanded harshly, Teresa's eyes wide with fear, despite her determined tone.

"Don't do it Tom, he'll only get hurt." She advised, swallowing tightly.

"Do it Thomas." Janson warned, brining the icicle closer. Thomas' heart was pounding, and he was opening and closing his mouth, but no sound was coming out. He didn't know what to say, who to save. "Thomas!" Janson demanded, Thomas shaking himself from his head.

"Thomas!" Brenda snapped.

"Ok ok!" He gave in, Teresa shooting him a glare. He avoided her eye as Janson took his phone from him. Thomas begrudgingly told him his password, and Janson tapped a few times, before calling his boyfriend. The phone rang once before Newt picked up, and Janson put it on speakerphone, motioning for Thomas to talk. The brunette opened his mouth.

_"Tommy you will never believe what Sonya did! She lied about the family emergency, for god knows what reason! So, I'm on my way back now and I was about to call you cuz you all seem to not be at Brenda's anymore and I-"_

"Newt." Thomas cut in, the blond stopping.

_"Mhm?"_

"We need your help." He murmured, feeling sick to the stomach.

 _"What? What's wrong Tommy?"_ Newt's voice became worried, and Thomas sighed.

"We went to fight Janson. I made up the family emergency to get you away, I didn't want you to get hurt. But now we're all strapped up too the machine, in a clearing in the woods behind the field, and we need your help. You're the only one who can help." The line was quiet for a few moments, and Thomas was worried Newt hadn't heard him, before he heard the blond huff through his nostrils.

 _"I'll be there."_ Newt hung up, and Thomas hung his head. Janson only grinned, pleased with himself.

"Perfect. No one will be able to stop me once I've got Newt's powers." He smiled to himself, standing up.

"Are you going to kill us now?" Minho asked, eyeing the switch. Janson hummed, pursing his lips in thought.

"Nah. I think i'll wait until Newt's here. Scar him a little before I kill him too." Thomas growled, and if he wasn't being restrained he was sure a power surge would've been imminent. 

"You're sick." he spat.

"You're the one who's leading your boyfriend to his death." Janson shot back casually, Thomas' fists curling up. 

"Do you feel any remorse?" Gally frowned, Janson cocking his head.

"Remorse? Why would I feel that?"

"Because of all the people you've killed.' The man replied snappily, Janson only waving him off.

"They're only a means to an end."

"Do you care about anyone?" Brenda glowered at her captor, "Don't you have a family?"

"My family didn't live to see me become stronger." The man hummed, the woman's mouth open in shock for a moment.

"What the _fuck_ is wrong with you?" She demanded, seemingly flabbergasted. 

"I have a goal. Aren't you supposed to not stop until you've reached that?" He asked, the woman scoffing.

"Wanting to be a doctor and world domination are two very different things."

"Perhaps." Janson only shrugged. 

"No, definitely." She shot back. 

Thomas wasn't listening to the conversation going on next to him, because he was on fire. His head was pounding with anger, body screaming with fatigue and need to _get out._ Get out and go. He was past the point of wanting to kill Janson now, if he became loose from his bindings he'd run. And he'd run and run until he found Newt, and he'd put the blond in a car and drive away. Drive far far away. Part of Thomas felt guilty for not wanting to fight Janson anymore, even if he knew it wasn't because he was scared. Every cell in his body was screaming at him to protect Newt, and to get Newt away from this place. It was't safe, he couldn't be-

It started with a few small pebbles. Then it became bigger rocks, then the bushes and the trees. And then everything was shaking. For a moment, Thomas thought it must just be another earthquake, but it felt different. it felt like the aftershock of an impact, it came in waves. 

"What is that?" Minho whispered, eyes locked on something on the other side of the huge clearing. 

Two glowing, green eyes were gleaning from the darkness of the forest. The eyes got bigger, and a figure emerged from the shadows.

Newt's fists were clenched, and his face looked like one of murder. He stopped to eye Janson up for a moment, scoffing. The man in front of Thomas growled at the mockery, jumping to levitate, attempting to make himself seem bigger.

"Good to finally see you Newt." He teased, Newt only growling.

"I'm going to crush you."

"Bold claim there Newt," The older man laughed off the comment, but Thomas would've been a fool not to notice the visible nervous swallow. The blond didn't reply, only beginning to walk forward.

Janson waved his hand immediately, creating a huge boulder, which he threw at Newt. The man only raised his arm, the rock breaking into hundreds of pieces on impact. Newt didn't falter.

"What's with the eyes?" Gally whispered, eyes wide and locked on the blond.

"He's controlling his power surge." Teresa murmured back, dumb struck. Janson frowned at the conversation behind him, creating a huge icicle. He threw it toward Newt, who's expression didn't even change, let alone his pace. The icicle was split in half with a flick of Newt's hand, and he kept walking. Janson huffed nervously, firing a fireball eagerly.

Newt clicked his fingers, fire disintegrating into ash and floating to the ground. Janson's eyes widened, and he tried his last resort. He made eye contact with Newt's glowing eyes, and the blond smiled.

"Is that all you've got old man?" Janson growled, throwing himself onto the ground. The impact was almighty, a huge burst of air hurtling toward Newt. The blond waved an arm over his head casually, creating a green forcefield around him. Although the air caused him to skid back slightly, he simply had to take two steps forward again to make up the lost distance. 

He had now crossed the clearing, and was about a metre from Janson.

"Are you going to let my friends go now or do I have to take your eyes and shove them where the sun won't shine before you get the damn message?" Janson only scoffed cockily.

"You think you scare me?"

"No. I know I do." Newt hummed, smirking. 

"Ha!" Janson laughed, throwing his head back in a laugh. When he opened his eyes again, Newt had disappeared. His eyes widened and he whipped around for the blond. Newt reappeared behind him, the man gasping when he came nose to nose with the blond.

"Boo."


	38. Thirty-eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is such a short one (it links in to my notes at the end of the chapter)

Janson groaned when he hit the ground, Newt only laughing at him from about three feet in the air. The two had been at it for a while now, and Janson was getting severely thrashed, even if Newt did have the odd cut and scratch here and there. 

Janson got back up slowly, before whipping around and firing a fireball at the blond. Newt clicked his fingers, almost disappointedly, sighing as he watched the ash float down.

"I'm not gonna lie mate, I thought it would be slightly more challenging. You're not very intimidating." He hummed, Janson growling at the comment. He pushed himself back up into the air, coming face to face with his enemy. 

"I'm going to get your powers." He growled, the blond rolling his eyes.

"You've been saying that for the past forty-five minutes, but I'm still in the air." He scoffed, the man huffing in anger. He threw a burst of air toward Newt, who only disappeared. Janson searched around for him desperately for a moment, before Newt appeared above him and slam-dunked his head into the ground with a wave of energy. 

When Jasnon lay limp for a few seconds, Newt hummed happily, turning to his friends. He stalked toward them, kneeling opposite Thomas.

"Newt! I'm so glad you'r- ow!" Thomas glowered at the blond, who's hand was still raised from the slap.

"You are the biggest asshole I have ever laid eyes on!" He snapped unhappily. Thomas sighed, looking at the ground.

"I deserved that."

"You're gonna get worse than that when we get out of here you self righteous, cock-sucking, prickly assholed wanke-" 

"Newt!" Thomas kicked his boyfriend in the stomach, who fell back onto the ground as the icicle shot over his head and impaled the tree behind them. Newt whipped back around, groaning and rolling his sleeves up at the sight of Janson, bak on his feet.

"Bloody hell mate, could you just die already?" The blond whined. 

"I..will..f..fight..you..tottto....thedeath!" Janson panted, Newt sucking on his teeth boredly. 

"Yeah yeah fight to the death. Let's go then, gladiator style as you seem to want." he grumbled, raising an eyebrow. Janson pushed off into the air again, Newt stepping up his force casually to get to the man's eye level. 

"No powers." Janson mumbled, sending hoarse.

"But you just flew." Newt retorted with a frown. 

"Physical combat, in the air." He explained, the blond raising an eyebrow.

"Whatever lets you sleep easy." He shrugged. Janson came closer to him, Newt watching him. The man suddenly swung a punch into Newt's jaw, the blond stumbling in the air and cursing. "You could've given me a countdown!" 

"I never said anything about a countdown." Janson grinned evilly, Newt huffing. He ran at the man, stepping up and wrapping his legs around Janson's neck and grabbing handfuls of his hair. The man tried to shake the blond off, Newt only rolling backward and flipping them both over, holding the two of them up and pinning his arm behind Janson's back.

"How in the fuck.." Teresa whispered. 'Why didn't we know he could do that?"

"There's lots we don't know about him." Thomas murmured, transfixed by the blond.

"Well he could've told us." Minho retorted.

"We never asked." Thomas muttered. 

Janson grabbed ahold of Newt'e forearm behind him, squeezing tightly. The blond frowned, unsure of what he was trying to achieve, before he yelped and retracted his hand, the older man jumping up.

"You said no powers! You burnt my hand!" Newt glowered at him, the man just shrugging.

"You've got to play dirty sometimes." Newt huffed, nursing his burnt hand with a grumble.

"Alright. We can play dirty." And then he disappeared. Janson growled, blowing fire around him, trying to show up Newt's silhouette, but to no avail. Then he was tripped up, and he yelped as he spun toward the ground. The man caught himself in time, and blew an icicle upward. There was a 'You piece of shit!', as the icicle stopped moving, before the motion of a tug and it was thrown back the way it came. 

Janson narrowly missed it, throwing another fireball in the general direction that the icicle had buried itself into Newt. It turned to dust though, and then Janson was choking, hands clawing at his throat and behind it. He was thrown to the floor, head hitting a rock and passing out cold. The blond reappeared and dropped to the ground, jogging back toward his friends.

"Tell me if he wakes up again." He told Brenda, before undoing her shackles. He freed the others, apart from Thomas, glaring at him. "I should turn it on."

"Yeah, you probably should." Thomas admitted.

"You did a bad thing." Newt pointed out.

"I was just trying to keep you safe. But it wasn't my call."

"No, it really wasn't." Newt glowered back at him, Thomas shrinking into himself slightly.

"Guys can we have couples counselling later, he's getting up!" Brenda called, Newt huffing. He undid Thomas' bindings and helped the brunette up roughly, turning back to their emery. 

"Can't you fight your own battles?" Janson tried to mock, the blond just shrugging.

"At least I have friends who are there for backup." 

"I don't need anyone else." The man spat.

"Right." New hummed. 

"Yeah!" The man grinned. He was dishevelled, and looked slightly deranged, eyes wide. "Come on then! Let's see you fucking try it!" Thomas and Newt glanced at eahcother, the blond shrugging.

"Ok."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey ya'll, quick note. After this stories finished I'm gonna take a little break from writing, probably like a couple days, up to a week, we'll see how it goes. Just because I've been drained recently and I need to catch up on my sleep whoops. And I really want to do a lot of planning for my next sorry, cuz I'm gassed about it and I want it to be the best one I've done so far. But yeah, thank you for your continuous support, love you all <33


	39. Thirty-nine

"Newt, some badass move would be greatly appreciated right about now!" Gally called, dodging a fireball.

"It's not that easy!" Newt shot back, throwing a force toward their enemy.

"Can't you and Thomas do your power surge thing??" Brenda asked loudly, healing a deep wound on Minho's shoulder.

"It won't work!" Teresa sighed defeatedly.

"Why not??"

"Because Newt's pissed at Tom! The power surge happened because they were experiencing a strong emotion, _together._ It was regret and love. But right now, Newt's mad at his boyfriend and Thomas is practically dead on his feet!"

"Ok you two need to make up, like, right now!" Brenda called.

"No!" Newt glowered at her, Thomas sighing as he rolled away from an icicle.

"Newton!" Brenda glared back at her, the blond huffing.

"Newt I'm sorry!" Thomas called, the blond shooting him a glare.

"Great, yeah forgiven, whoopdie-fucking-doo!" Newt shot back.

"I'm sorry I went behind your back Newt! I just wanted to keep you safe!" 

"Yeah that's the problem! You constantly have your nose in other peoples business!"

"Newt you're supposed to be making up with him!" Minho called, the blond groaning.

"He has a right to be mad at me." Thomas murmured.

"Yeah but we kinda need him to not be!" Teresa snapped.

"I can't just stop being mad at him, just like that!" Newt defended, dodging a burst of air.

"Well try!" 

"Oh yeah sorry, not like i haven't been trying for the past fucking two hours! Watch your mouth Teresa I could've left you in that machine!" 

"Oi!" The woman snapped back with a glare.

"Newt! Get down here!" Thomas ordered.

"Fuck you!" Was the only response he got.

"Newt!" Thomas snapped, the blond huffing and dropping to the ground. "You four are gonna have to hold your own for a couple minutes!" He ordered. "Make a forcefield around us." He told Newt softly.

"Wait Tom we can't do this on our o-" Teresa was put on mute as the bubble sheltered the two of them from the noise and destruction of the outside world.

"Newt, just hear me out, ok? Cuz I have a lot to apologise for."

"Yes you do." Newt huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and avoiding his boyfriends' eye.

"Ok, hear me out. I'm sorry that I went behind your back and used your sister. All I wanted to do was to protect you, because for some reason I have an indescribable urge to do so. But it was wrong of me, because it wasn't my call to make, and it certainly wasn't my place to get your sister involved."

"Dick move Tommy." Newt grumbled.

"I know. And I'm sorry that I tricked you into thinking something bad had happened to your family. That was so fucking wrong of me. I should've let you choose wether you fought your battle or not- it was never my choice to make." Newt only hummed in acknowledgement, "Not only that, but I'm sorry for constantly underestimating you." Newt glanced up at that, interest clearing caught. "I'm sorry that I assumed you weren't good at ice skating. I'm sorry I didn't listen to what you had to say about not being able to fight Janson. Im sorry I assumed you were too weak and didn't know what you were doing to fight this fight, and I'm sorry I thought you weren't strong enough to save all of us. Because you are strong enough, you're stronger than all of us combined, and without you, I'd be dead right now." Newt sighed.

"I wasn't sure if you knew how I felt about the underestimating." He admitted quietly to his shoes.

"Why didn't you tell me?" The brunette frowned.

"I thought you might not listen to me." Thomas sighed,

"I'm really sorry Newt. I'm a dick." The blond scoffed.

"I know. But thanks for the apology."

"I need you to forgive me, properly. Not just for this, but for us. Tell me what I can do, tell me how i can make this better." The blond hummed for a moment.

"Uh- well, I think I'd just like you to listen to me more. Don't go behind my back, and talk to me about what you want." He shrugged.

"I can do that. I will do that." Thomas nodded vigorously.

"Ok. Thank you Tommy." The blond smiled softly.

"I love you Newt."

"I love you too." 

"Now, how about you teach me how to kick ass?" The brunette laughed, Newt only scoffing and grabbing his hand.

"I can do that." He snapped away the forcefield, Thomas immediately shoving Newt downward as Minho went flying over their heads. "Oi! You big rat-faced, wonky-cocked midget, look over here!" Thomas only shot Newt a small, odd glance at the blonds creativity when it came to insults, before Newt raised a hand. The brunette followed his lead, hand tightening around Newt's.

"Suck on this, psycho." A burst of green fire shot from their hands, the two both stumbling backward with the force of it. The fire struck Janson in the head, the man screaming in pain. The group watched as the man disintegrated into ash in front of them, face melting into dark flakes that floated to the ground, leaving a mess that to any passer by, would look like someone just had a campfire in the forest.

"We did it." Teresa whispered. "We did it!" She squealed, throwing herself at Minho and hugging him tight. Cheers erupted around them, everyone hugging each other and screaming in relief and excitement. Thomas turned toward Newt, grinning from ear to ear, only to find the blonds' eyes their normal, chocolate shade, and eyebrows furrowed deeply.

"My head hurts Tommy." He admitted softly. 

"It's ok Newt, we'll get you home." He tugged lightly at the blond to follow, who just blinked blearily.

"Actually, I donfeelsogo.." Newt's eyes rolled back and he collapsed into Thomas, who caught him with wide eyes.

"Newt! Newt, hey, Angel, I need you to wake up." He lay the blond carefully on the ground, immediately going for the wrist. The blond's heart was beating but his pulse was faint. By this point, his distress had alerted the others, who rushed over, Brenda kneeling next to the place blond. She placed a hand on his forehead, closing her eyes. After a moment, she yelped and withdrew, steadying herself on Gally's shoulder.

"What? What is it Bren'?" Teresa asked.

"I can't heal him. It feels heavy, like theres too much weight to release." She frowned deeply, Thomas wasting no time in scooping the blond up off the floor.

"Let's get to Jorge then."

-

When Newt awoke a few days later, Thomas was waiting, scribbling something down in a textbook. The blond whined slightly, Thomas throwing the book down and taking up the blonds' hand.

"Hey Angel. Back from heaven I see?" The brunette joked, the blond groaning.

"I'd like to go back if it means I won't have to listen to your god-awful jokes."

"How are you feeling?" Thomas chuckled.

"Like shit." Newt admitted. "My head still hurts- actually, everything hurts. And I'm tired and you're a pain in the ass." He explained. 

"Well, Jorge says the pain will wear off soon, he says you have to rest. As for the ass thing, I thought we made up?"

"We did. I'm still mad about it though." He shrugged, the brunette deciding to crack a joke.

"Well I think it was all worth it."

"How?" Newt gave him a tiny, incredulous eyebrow crease.

"I got to see you all angry. It was really hot, I'm not gonna lie."

"I actually hate you." Newt grumbled, eyes still shining as he rolled over, back to Thomas.

"Keep telling yourself that Angel."

"Hate you."

"You hurt me."


	40. Forty

Zart burst into tears. 

Teresa rubbed his back slowly, Minho offering him a small smile.

"Y-y-yourreally killed him?" He whimpered, Thomas nodding slowly.

"Yeah, he's gone."

"T-t-t-thhanku." Zart clutched Brenda's hand tightly, eyes watering with a soft smile. "Thank you so much."

"Don't thank us." Thomas shrugged, nodding toward his boyfriend. "Thank Newt." Newt was trying to offer Zart support as best he could, but the blond looked positively wrecked. He has dark eyes bags, and the cup of coffee in his hand was the only thing keeping him upright.

"I'm Newt." The blond noted, Thomas turning to him. He turned back, Teresa raising an eyebrow at the brunette.

"Ok, nap time Newt!" Thomas stood up, putting down the blond's coffee and replacing it with his hand.

"Is he ok?" Zart whispered, Minho patting his knee.

"He's just a little tired. The battle really messed with him. But Brenda says he's just healing, right Bren'?" Brenda nodded reassuringly, Thomas closing the door into the living room. 

"Tommy?" The blond asked softly, the brunette lying across the couch and propping his head up on the arm. He tugged Newt close, the blond flopping on top of him and nuzzling into his chest as the brunette played with his hair absently.

"Yes Angel?"

"Am I ever gonna get better?" The blond asked genuinely, Thomas' grip around the blond tightening slightly.

"Yes Newt, you are. I promise. It's not long now."

"I hope I get better." His boyfriend murmured. "I don't want to be crazy."

"You're not crazy." Thomas frowned deeply, Newt only giggling.

"I'm an angel." He murmured, the brunette chuckling.

"Yeah you are." He hummed, to the evenly-breathing blond.

-

"Tommy!" Newt burst into the kitchenette, glaring his boyfriend down. "How many times have I told you to use the _oven_ for the nuggets!"

"My hands are ovens!" Thomas shot back, hiding the black burnt nuggets behind his back. Newt coughed out some dark smoke, prying the window open and huffing.

"No. Your hands are fireplaces." Thomas huffed, throwing the sad nuggets in the bin behind him. "Looks like we'll have to go out." Newt hummed, checking the fridge and freezer to find no more salvageable food.

"Where?" Thomas asked, cocking his head slightly.

"Uhh" Newt thought for a moment.

"How about, you teach me how to ice-skate, and afterwards we can go find some dinner?" He suggested, the blond humming.

"Deal."

-

"Tommy, no!" Newt was cackling as he glided around on the ice after his boyfriend. Thomas' legs kept drifting apart, and he basically looked like a less elegant version of Bambi. His legs weren't supposed to bend that way, and so he was in an immense amount of pain, but he'd be lying to himself if he said it wasn't worth it; anything to hear Newt's laugh.

"Help." Newt buckled over with laughter as Thomas fell on his ass again, the blond clutching his sides. A particular snort had the blond loosing his balance, and Newt ending up on the ground too. Newt looked surprised, the brunette scoffing lightly. He dragged himself back up, before helping his boyfriend up.

"Ok, don't do whatever the hell you were doing with your legs." Newt was still laughing slightly, tears crowding at the corners of his eyes. "Just go in a straight line, and glide. Like roller-skates." He encouraged. 

"Ok, like roller-skates."

"Perfect!" Newt grinned, shoving Thomas away. The brunette yelped and skidded for a moment, catching his fall and sliding elegantly, or, as elegantly as he could. When he got to the other side, he turned back around.

"Newt, I did it!"

"Yay!" The blond called back, before his eyes widened. "Tommy watch out for the-" Thomas rammed into the wall with a  thump.

-

"Stop." he groaned, Newt biting his lip, hard. The blond had been trying to suppress his laughter the entire time they were having dinner, due to the black eye Thomas was sporting.

"I'm sorry." He wheezed out in a desperate attempt to keep it contained. 

"No you're not." Thomas was trying to look as angry as possible, but it was hard when Newt was so giggly in front of him. 

"No I'm not." Thomas swatted him across the table, blowing the candle at their table out in the process. 

"Oops." Thomas snapped, the flame relighting, as Newt smacked his arm.

"Not in public Tommy!" 

"It's fine Angel, no one saw." he shrugged. "And I only lit a candle."

"I know," Newt laughed, "My boyfriend really lives on the wild side."

-

"Tommy?"

"Newt?"

"Do you think they'll be more people- as bad as Janson?" The blond asked. The two were laying in their normal position, Newt rested between Thomas' legs, head heavy on his chest. Thomas was stroking tiny circles into Newt's bare skin at his shoulder, the blond practically purring at the touch.

"Well, yeah. There will be." Thomas nodded. 'At some point."

"Ones that we'll have to fight?" He asked.

"Maybe. Maybe ones our children will have to fight. Or grandchildren." 

"I hope not." Newt frowned deeply. "It's not very fun."

"No, it's not. But having powers isn't all bad." Thomas shrugged lightly, "Right?"

"Well- I don't like them." Newt decided, playing gently with Thomas' spare fingers.

"Why not?" Thomas frowned. Personally, he thought of his powers as a gift, always had. He felt blessed to be able to have the means to protect people, and keep order in society. He loved his job.

"Well- they make me sick, and I keep almost dying." Newt huffed.

"But you've made good friends." Thomas countered.

"Friends that might die in front of me."

"You're quite the pessimist." Thomas noted, the blond frowning.

"I'm not. I just- I dunno."

"Well, I like my powers."

"Why?" Newt queried.

"Because, it meant I could get closer to you." He shrugged, Newt frowning deeply.

"I'm not sure I'm worth what happened with Janson."

"Angel, I would let Janson kill me ten times over if it meant getting ten more minutes with you." Newt flushed against' Thomas chest; he could feel it. "And, I know we're together, and I love you and all. But it's more than that. Cuz our powers contact, react together. Thats like a new level, instinctual connection." He hummed.

"I guess. But I don't like thinking that our powers react together."

"Why not?" Thomas asked, the blond sighing against his chest.

"I'd rather think about how we react together." He admitted.

"I like your thinking, Angel."

"I like you."

"Love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh it's finished I'm sad :'(((( Sorry if this last chapter is a little underwhelming, I wasn't really sure how to end it. Thank you for all your ongoing support though, I love you all so much! If you missed the announcement bout my next fic, so go back to thirty-eight. See you all soon! <333


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